


Can't fight this feeling I've got

by pasdoll



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Aomine is kind of a prick, Aomine likes to curse, Gryffindor Aomine, Gryffindor Kagami, Gryffindor Momoi, Kise is a good brother, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Quidditch is the equivalent of basketball, Slow Burn, Slytherin Kise, Unrequited Crush, but I still love him, they're obsessed with it it's ridiculous
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-09-16 20:44:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 48,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9288920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pasdoll/pseuds/pasdoll
Summary: Aomine doesn't like Slytherins much.Kise doesn't like Aomine much.Kagami likes Kise quite a lot.Or, the one where Aomine is a prick with the mouth of a sailor, Kagami pines a lot, and Kise is a ray of sunlight and everything good.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Really hope you like this, I'm actually pretty excited about it! Wanted to write a Hogwarts story with Kise and Aomine in forever.  
> So in this story Kise, Kuroko and Takao are a year younger than Aomine, Momoi, Kagami, Midorima, Himuro and Murasakibara. They're in their 4th year in the first chapter, while the others are in their 5th year.
> 
> English is not my first language. You have been warned.

 

**Chapter 1**

 

 

"What the  _hell_  are you wearing?" 

To say that Kagami's face turned red was putting it lightly. The color of his face now resembled the color of his hair, which was toned deep dark red. 

"My mom bought it for me," he mumbled quietly, crossing his hands in front of him as if it would block the floral shirt he was wearing from sight. 

"Have I ever told you how much I love your mom?" Aomine said with a smirk. "Always finding a new way to embarrass you." 

"And I thought she outdid herself last year," a feminine voice said from behind him, and Aomine didn't even need to turn around to know who it belonged to. "Remember the yellow pants with the pink snapback?" 

"It was glorious," Aomine agreed with a nod. 

"Oh piss off both of you," Kagami said, still as red as a tomato, "It's not my fault she has a weird fashion sense." 

"It's your fault for allowing her to put you into these atrocities," Momoi said, "She must've realized by now that you're not a toddler anymore. You're supposed to be able to choose your own clothes for yourself without her help." 

"I think that you're putting a bit too much faith in him," Aomine said. 

"Prick." 

"Idiot." 

"Stop it," Momoi said with a scowl. "We haven't even stepped onto the train yet and you're already calling each other names. Jesus, you're like two overgrown kids." 

"Well, he started it!" 

"Great, Bakagami.  _That_  would show her that she's wrong." 

"Train.  _Now_." Momoi's words were accompanied with a glare directed pointedly at them, and with a few huffs and eyerolls from Aomine, the three of them had claimed a compartment for themselves. 

"Is Himuro going to join us?" Momoi asked Kagami as Aomine placed his legs on her lap. She pinched his calf but didn't throw him off her. 

Kagami made a face. "I don't know. He hadn't seen Murasakibara for a week and he said that he's going to make up for lost time, which is something that I  _really_  don't want to think about." 

"They can make up for lost time right here. I know _I_  wouldn't mind -" 

"I wouldn't mind either," said Aomine. 

Kagami looked at him with surprise and disgust. "Seriously?" 

"Yeah. They can fuck right against this wall for all I care. As long as it makes you uncomfortable, I can deal with anything, even if it means seeing Murasakibara's dick pounding repeatedly into your brother's -" 

"Holy shit, shut up shut up _shut up_!" Kagami's hands shot up to his ears, blocking Aomine's laugh and Momoi's snicker.  

"Look at him, he's scarred for life," Momoi said, affectionately ruffling Kagami's hair. Kagami shooed her away with a glare, then put his hands back in his lap. 

"Can't believe you got sorted into Gryffindor," he muttered darkly, "Wonder what the Sorting Hat was on that night. You would be a great fit with the slytherins." 

Aomine made a face. "Ew. Do I look like a conniving snake to you?" 

"Yes." 

"Fuck off. I'm a lion through and through, don't even try to suggest otherwise."  

They bickered like that for the next hour, Momoi quickly focusing on reading a book so that she won't have to listen to them. It was like that for the past four years, ever since their first year in Hogwarts, when the three of them were sorted into the Gryffindor house. It was easy for Momoi and Aomine to strike up a friendship, with Momoi keeping him in line and Aomine pushing her out of her comfort zone, making her stay outside of the common room past curfew and grabbing food from the kitchen instead of going to the Great Hall to eat. With Kagami it took a bit more time and effort; neither of them would ever admit that, but the reason it was hard for them to get along was because they were so  _similar_. Both were headstrong and had a short fuse, and both were stubborn to a fault. It took several detentions and a lot of meddling by Momoi for them to become decent toward each other, and even more meddling to become friends. They still bickered nonstop, but now it held no malice in it, and it was more friendly banter than anything else. 

And although Aomine would rather die than admit that he actually cares about Kagami, he could still say wholeheartedly that he'd be willing to risk his life for him.   

They arrived to the castle when the sky was pitch black, and Momoi shivered the second they stepped off the train. "I forgot how freezing it is here," she said through chattering teeth, wrapping her arms around herself for extra warmth. Aomine put his arm around her to radiate his warmth on her. 

"Can't believe you both are prefects now," Aomine muttered, annoyed. "Now I'll have to walk alone to the dormitories like a sad little fuck." 

"You can join us," Kagami offered kindly, "Help us show the first years around like a good little helper." 

Aomine snorted. "I'd rather be a sad little fuck than a good little helper, thanks." 

Kagami shrugged. "Suit yourself." 

"You know, I'm glad that I'm a prefect this year," Momoi said as the three of them sat down at the Gryffindor table, "I like having the added responsibility. And it would look great on my resume." 

"Why are we friends again?" Aomine asked.  

"Because you love me." 

"That's not it, no." 

"Because I let you copy my Potions homework." 

"Yeah, that sounds more like it." 

Momoi smiled and looked over at the Ravenclaw table. "Oh look, here's Himuro next to Riko." 

Aomine hummed thoughtfully. "Looking properly fucked if you ask me." 

"Well, it's a good thing that no one's asking you, then," Kagami said with an annoyed huff.  

It wasn't long before the talking in the room simmered down to an expectant buzz, the students either excited for the Sorting or excited for the food. 

Kagami was definitely excited for the food. "Hope they get a move on, I'm  _starving_." 

As if they heard him, the doors to the Great Hall slowly opened, revealing Professor McGonagall and a bunch of tiny kids behind her.  

"They're so cute," Momoi cooed from her place next to Aomine. "Look at those big eyes, they look so awestruck." 

"Wonder who's going to be in Gryffindor," Kagami said. "I bet I can guess before they get Sorted." 

Aomine snorted quietly. "Bet I could guess right more than you." 

"You're on." 

They were both a bit hopeless with it, honestly, none of them able to guess correctly more than three times, but it was at least entertaining. The best part was when Kagami got one right, a little girl with pigtails who got sorted into Ravenclaw, and he shot up from his seat screaming, "That's right, I knew it, Ravenclaw for the way!", earning him a few unimpressed looks from his fellow gryffindors. 

" _'_ _Ravenclaw_ _for the way'_ ," muttered a seventh year boy sitting opposite Aomine with a roll of his eyes, "Guess the Gryffindor's pride is a thing of the past now." 

A few minutes later it was the turn of a little kid with a mop of blond hair on his head. 

"This one is easy," Kagami said. "He's from the Kise family. They've been Sorted into Slytherin since forever. Ancient pureblood family." 

The boy gingerly sat down at the edge of his seat, his deep brown eyes looking at the hat nervously before it was placed on his head, obstructing the bright yellow hair from view. The kid seemed to frown, shook his head at something the hat said to him. In the end, the hat opened its mouth and shouted, "- _Gryffindor_!" 

The hall was completely silent.  

The boy took the hat off his head, looking close to tears, and turned to look at McGonagall behind him. He asked her something quietly, to which she shook her head in response, a sad look on her face.  

"Poor boy," Momoi said sadly, "No one even cheers for him -" 

" _WOO!_  Way to go, Shinji, good job!" 

All eyes turned to the Slytherin table, where a guy with similar blond hair and fair skin was standing and cheering, clapping his hands loudly and enthusiastically as if to compensate for the rest of the students lack of enthusiasm. 

"Who is he?" Aomine asked with a raised eyebrow.  

"His brother," Kagami replied quickly. "He's a fourth year here. Ryouta, I think his name is." 

The little boy's eyes quickly turned to his brother, giving him a terrified look. Aomine didn't blame him, to be honest - the ancient pureblooded families were not known for their forward thinking. They would be pissed at him for not being sorted into Slytherin, that much was clear to everyone.  

Aomine turned to look at the older brother again, who was still standing, still smiling brightly at his brother, trying to comfort him. _'It's okay',_ the older boy mouthed to him, then gestured with a smile at the Gryffindor table. The little boy nodded his head slightly and rose from the stool he was sitting on, taking hesitant steps toward the Gryffindor table. The older Kise started clapping again, but now he was joined in by the rest of the Gryffindor table, who seemed to have moved on from their momentarily shock and confusion. One boy even clapped the young blond on the shoulder, as if welcoming him to the house. 

"That was brave," Momoi said, still looking at the older brother who was now sitting again at his table, ignoring the looks from the other slytherins. "Most ancient families wouldn't blatantly support a member of their being Sorted into the rival house." 

Kagami nodded his head, his eyes also still trained on the blond slytherin.  

Aomine just shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever," he said simply, then pointed at the young boy now walking up to the stool, "I bet you this one is a Hufflepuff." 

The Sorting ended ten minutes later without any farther occurrences, and after the Headmaster said his greetings and laid out the school rules in favor of the new first years, the feast begun, food magically appearing out of thin air on the tables. 

"Finally," muttered Kagami while grabbing the nearest plate filled with hot wings and emptying almost half of its content into his own plate. 

"You guys are animals, did you know that?" Momoi told both Kagami and Aomine, scrunching up her nose in distaste at the sight of them practically inhaling food. Aomine didn't even dignified the statement with a response, simply choosing to give her the bird while swallowing a chunk of meat.  

Aomine stretched back in his seat a while later, feeling satiated at last, and let out a loud burp. 

Momoi slapped his arm. "You're disgusting." 

"You're disgusting," he replied, too full to think of a better comeback. 

Momoi rolled her eyes and got up. "C'mon, Kagami. We need to take the first years back to the dormitories." 

Kagami blinked back at her, his head resting on the table. "I think I ate more than I weigh." 

Momoi kicked him. "Tough." She then walked off to the group of first years, gesturing for the girls to follow her lead. 

Kagami grumbled annoyedly as he rose from his seat, making Aomine snort contently. "Thank fuck I'm not a prefect. I almost feel sorry for you." 

"As if anyone in their right mind would appoint  _you_  as a prefect." 

"What does that suppose to mean?" 

"There are standards -" 

"Excuse me, are you the Gryffindor prefect?" 

The two of them turned their heads to look at the person disturbing their argument, Aomine immediately recognizing the blond hair and the blinding smile. 

It took Kagami a few moments to reply, "Yeah, I'm - yeah." 

The guy - Kise - smiled even brighter, if that was possible. "Great. Do you think I can maybe borrow him for a while?" He gestured at someone next to him. Aomine didn't even have to look to know it was his brother. 

Kagami frowned. "I'm not sure -" 

"I'll bring him to the Gryffindor common room myself," Kise promised quickly, "I know my way around the castle, don't worry. He won't get lost." 

"I'm not... I'm not worried." God, Aomine thought to himself, it seems like all the food got right to Kagami's head, making him even stupider than usual. He could barely form a sentence. 

Kise didn't seem to think the same thing as Aomine, and just put his hand around his brother's shoulder. "Great, so we'll go." 

"Wait!" Kagami said before they even had a chance to turn around. He flushed under the questioning look on Kise's face, then mumbled, "He - I need to tell him the password." 

Kise blinked. "Oh. Right. I forgot, sorry." He chuckled then. "You probably don't want to say it around my Slytherin ears, ah? Don't worry, I won't listen."  

He then proceeded by placing both his palms on his ears, blocking the sound.  

Aomine raised an eyebrow at that, looking back at Kagami to convey to him how ridiculous he thinks this guy is, but Kagami just smiled slightly at the sight, his cheeks still a bit pink, and told the boy the password in a quiet voice. 

Kise removed his hands from his ears when his brother turned to look at him again, grabbing his robe tightly in his hands. "Thanks," he said to Kagami, smiling at him once again, before leaving the room with his brother in tow. 

Kagami exhaled quietly and turned his head, noticing the smug look on Aomine's face. 

"What?" He said stiffly. 

"Nothing," Aomine replied with a shrug, getting up from his seat. "But just so you know, I won't be attending your wedding if you're going to marry a Slytherin." 

Kagami flushed deeply. "Shut up!" 

"I hope for your sake that your kids will get his eyebrows, because if they'll get stuck with yours -" 

"Seriously, Aomine, shut up," he said hurriedly, looking around him. He then turned to Aomine again. Said with a quiet tone, "Was I that obvious?" 

Aomine raised an eyebrow. "I don't know. I mean, I don't think he noticed, but I don't know him." 

Kagami rubbed a hand over his face. "I was just caught off-guard, you know? He's... fuck, he's so  _pretty_." 

Aomine smirked. "Are you enamored? Is that what you look like when you're _enamored_?" 

"Fuck off." 

Aomine laughed loudly, then put a hand on Kagami's shoulder. "I don't think you were that obvious, alright? I just noticed it because I know you too well. Unfortunately." 

Kagami seemed slightly relieved by that, nodding his head. Aomine removed his hand from Kagami's shoulder, but not before pinching him lightly. "I think two of your first years fell asleep waiting for you. Go do your goddamn job, you unprofessional prefect." 

  

**~oOo~**

 

The next morning Aomine, Momoi and Kagami sat down at the Gryffindor table, and were shortly joined by Murasakibara, his hair in a ponytail, a lollipop in his mouth and a big, purple lovebite on his neck. 

Aomine snickered. "Nice hickey, Murasakibara." 

Murasakibara continued licking the lollipop, nodding to Aomine in acknowledgment.  

Kagami, who hadn't noticed it before, glanced at Murasakibara's neck quickly and then grimaced, returning in a hurry to his breakfast.  

Momoi examined his neck as well. "I always thought that Himuro would be a very gentle lover. Maybe I was wrong." 

Kagami grimaced again. "Seriously, I'm trying to eat here, and I'd prefer it if you won't talk about my brother doing stuff. Okay?" 

After a few moments of silence from the other three, Kagami returned to his food with a satisfied look. 

Not a second later Himuro appeared. "Nicely done, Himuro! How long did it take you to suck that hickey?" 

Kagami knocked his head on the table in exasperation. 

Himuro looked at Aomine, then at Murasakibara. "Oh, it didn't take that long. His skin bruises so quickly from just a bit of sucking, you should see his di-" 

" _No_!" Kagami shouted, horrified, pointing his fork at Himuro. "Not talking about it, not now, not ever!" 

Himuro smirked. "Alright, alright." He then took out of his pocket a few papers, offering one to each of them. "I grabbed us the timetables of this year. Gryffindor is with Slytherin in most of the classes." 

Aomine grabbed his timetable in anger. "What the fuck - we've got Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, Defense Against the Dark Arts _and_ Transfiguration with the Slytherins! Who's in charge of this crap?" 

Momoi rolled her eyes. "You're too dramatic, Aomine. Who even cares?" 

"Yeah, Aomine, not all slytherins are bad," Kagami agreed. 

Aomine looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Just because you want to suck some Slytherin dick doesn't mean that we all want to." 

"What?" Himuro said quickly, raising his eyes from his own timetable to look at Kagami searchingly. "Who's dick do you want to suck?" 

"No one's!" Kagami said quickly while simultaneously kicking Aomine in the shin.  

"You're blushing," Momoi said in a pleased tone, "Why are you blushing, Kagami?" 

"I'm not blushing, that's the color of my face," he said defensively. 

"You're so full of shit, Bakagami," Aomine said delightedly. "You should've seen him yesterday, stuttering like a twelve year old girl with a crush -" 

"I did not  _stutter_  -" 

"- practically begging him with his eyes to take off his pants -" 

"- that's not what happened, seriously, shut up -" 

"Who was it then?" Himuro interrupted impatiently. 

Aomine smirked. "Kise. The blond one." 

"Oh, Kise Ryouta?" Himuro asked. 

Kagami looked at him with wide eyes. "You know him?" 

"I know  _of_  him. He's a good friend of Takao, the one who's always harassing Midorima. He seems nice. I give you my blessing." 

Kagami huffed. "I don't  _need_  your blessing, I'm not trying to... to  _seduce_  him or anything." 

"I think you should," Momoi said. "You'd look cute together." 

Aomine snorted. "No they wouldn't. It's still Kagami we're talking about, 'cute' does not apply to him." 

"C'mon, Kagami," Momoi said, ignoring Aomine, "Do you think he's good looking?" 

Kagami's cheeks turned pink again. "Yeah. I mean, I have eyes." 

"And do you want to get to know him better?"  

"He - he seems like he'd be interesting to talk to, I guess." 

"So why not go for it?" 

"Because, I -" Kagami stopped himself, shaking his head as if to get rid of a thought. "No. Forget it. I don't want a relationship, alright?" 

"But -" 

"I just want to focus on Quidditch this year. Nothing more, nothing less. Okay?" 

Momoi made a face. "Yeah, okay. If that's what you want. But if you change your mind, you know we would all help you with getting him, right?" 

Kagami smiled slightly at that. "Thanks. I know." 

Murasakibara put the lollipop stick on the table. Himuro took one look at the stick and stood up, offering his hand to his boyfriend. "Come on, Atsushi, we'll find you something else to lick." 

Kagami's smile was quickly wiped off his face. "Oh for crying out loud..." 

 

**~oOo~**

 

September quickly turned into October turned into November, and before any of them knew it it was already a week before Christmas. To Aomine, the time-off couldn't had come in a better time - he had a shit ton of homework he had to get to, which was almost impossible for him to do with the amount of Quidditch practices he had. Their new Captain, a seventh year named Eddie, was fanatic with his attitude, ordering the entire team to get to the pitch five nights out of seven, and every other weekend making them get up before sunrise to get some extra practice without the prying eyes of the other Quidditch teams. 

And Aomine loved Quidditch. He lived for Quidditch, he breathed Quidditch. Ever since he was a four year old kid and his dad bought him his first toy broom. But even _he_ wouldn't choose to get up at ass o'clock in the morning voluntarily to fly around on a broom. 

"He's insane," he complained to Kagami after another grueling early-morning practice. They were walking up to the castle from the pitch, their outfit covered in mud and sweat and Aomine never wanted a shower more in his life. "Absolutely gone bonkers."  

"I think he's just passionate," Kagami said, brushing dirt off his broom in concentration. 

"I think you're bonkers, too." 

"No, I'm just not as pessimistic as you are," Kagami said. "He obviously knows what he'd doing. We won our match against Ravenclaw." 

"We could've won regardless of our training routine. Ravenclaw sucks." He watched with a smile as Midorima Shintaro, a fellow 5th year student from Ravenclaw who was passing by them, looked at him in a mixture of disgust and superiority. 

"Well, we also have a match against Slytherin soon, and their team is pretty good," Kagami said, still eyeing his broom for any lingering dirt. 

Aomine rolled his eyes. "Don't ever say that sentence to me again. I don't want to give the slytherins even something resembling of a praise." 

"I'm not praising them, I'm just saying. You really need to let go of your resentment." 

"Shut up, I don't need to do anything," Aomine grumbled. 

Kagami just hummed in response, finally deeming his broom clean enough and looking up at Aomine. "My parents are flying to South America in the holidays." 

Aomine raised an eyebrow. "I'm very happy for them?" 

Kagami shook his head. "I mean, that they're not going to be home for Christmas, so I have to stay at Hogwarts." 

"Ah. Well, that sucks mate." 

"Stay with me?" 

Aomine couldn't help but laugh loudly at that. "Fuck no, man." 

"Why not?" Kagami asked, frowning. "C'mon, I don't want to stay here all by myself, and it would be fun!" 

"Himuro is your half brother, won't he have to stay here just like you?" 

"He's going to Murasakibara." 

"Ah." Fuck. "Well, what about Momoi?" 

"Already asked her and she can't. She has a new cousin and the whole family is going to go over and visit him and she was really looking forward to it." 

"Fuck, why don't you have more friends?" Aomine ran a hand through his hair. It wasn't like he was looking forward to spending time at home with his family or anything, but he also didn't like the idea of spending his free time on school grounds. But Kagami looked damn upset about staying here alone, and Aomine wasn't that cruel that he'd abandon his friend like that. 

He couldn't actually say something like that to him though, couldn't let Kagami know that he actually _cares_ , so instead he sighed in vexation and said, "You _so_ owe me." 

Kagami looked both surprised and pleased. "I didn't think you'd actually agree." 

"Well, Christmas with the family is just about as boring as watching paint dry," Aomine said simply, "So don't look so smug. It's got nothing to do with you and everything to do with me." 

"Yeah yeah, you big softie," Kagami said with a laugh, and Aomine scowled back at him. 

"Don't make me regret this, Bakagami." 

"I wouldn't dream of it, Ahomine."

 

**~oOo~**

 

Aomine spent the entire first day of Christmas either sleeping or doing homework, to the disappointment of Kagami. 

"It's a holiday," he complained to Aomine while sitting on his bed opposite of his in their dormitory, "We should do something fun, not stay inside all day." 

"Then go do whatever," Aomine suggested without taking his eyes off his parchment, "Grab something to eat from the kitchen, have a walk outside. Go and have a swim with the Giant Squid for all I care. Just stop harassing me, I'm trying to concentrate." 

Kagami lied grumpily down on his mattress. "Who would've thought you'd be the responsible one and do your homework on the first day of the holiday." 

"I've always been the responsible one." 

Kagami snorted. "Yeah, okay." He then turned to his backpack and grabbed his books, a few parchments and a quill. "Can't believe I'm doing my homework because of you. You were supposed to stay here to keep me entertained." 

"As much as you'd like to believe it, keeping you entertained isn't my sole purpose in life." 

"Don't be ridiculous," Kagami said with a smile. "But tomorrow we're having a one-on-one. I'm not gonna be holed up in this room for the duration of the holiday." 

"Whatever," Aomine replied, though inside he was pleased. It had been a while since their last one-on-one match, what with all the schoolwork and team practices. And although playing with Kagami on the same team was fun, it was even better playing against him. He was his biggest rival, with similar abilities to him and his dedication to the sport was on par with his own.  

He enjoyed their one-on-ones more than most things in his life. 

So the next day, they were both headed to the quidditch pitch, throwing teasing jabs at each other and friendly insults. They were the only quidditch players staying at school for the holiday and weren't expecting anyone to occupy the pitch, but as they got closer to the field they could see a lone figure, flying around and throwing a small ball through the hoops.  

Aomine narrowed his eyes at the person, unable to see who it was due to the harsh light of the sun. "Who the hell is this?" 

Kagami was also narrowing his eyes, his hand resting on his forehead in order to shield his eyes from the sun. "Dunno. It's hard to see clearly from here." 

"Well, they need to get lost," Aomine said while walking closer to the field. He put his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Hey, kid! Get down here, stop fucking around!" 

The figure stopped in the air, apparently hearing him, then started to descend down. All it took was Kagami's sharp inhale for Aomine to know exactly who the mystery person was, and soon enough he was greeted with the smiling face of Kise Ryouta. 

"Hello!" the guy said cheerfully, leaning slightly on his broom. It seemed like he had been here for a while; a few beads of sweat were at his hairline, and he was a bit out of breath. 

Aomine ignored Kagami's pathetic little stutter of a greeting, ("H-hi"), and instead said, "We're going to use the pitch now, so you can just leave." 

Kise's smiling face turned into a frown. "I was here first," he argued. 

"Do I look like I care?" Aomine asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"Aomine!" Kagami said in a hushed tone, "Stop being such an ass!" 

Kise's frown deepened farther. "Who do you even think you are?" he said. "You don't own the pitch." 

The Slytherin had a backbone, Aomine had to hand it to him. "You're not even a quidditch player. You shouldn't even be here." 

"You don't have to be a quidditch player to be here," Kise said.  

Aomine was already over this conversation. "Just piss off already and stop making a fuss." 

There was a glint of anger in Kise's eyes, but it was quickly gone in the next second. He then smiled a wide, sweet, completely fake smile. 

"I was thinking about leaving just a bit before you got here," he said, the smile still stretched across his face. "But it's such a nice day out. I might just stay here until the evening." 

Aomine glared at him. "You spiteful Slytherin." 

"Was that supposed to be insulting? Because it sounds like a compliment to me." 

"Only a true slimy Slytherin would take that as a compliment -" 

"That's enough, Aomine!" Kagami said loudly, glaring at Aomine. "He didn't do anything to you, what is your problem?" 

Aomine rolled his eyes at Kagami's face. "Stay out of it." 

"No, seriously Aomine, you don't have to be such an ass all the time." 

Aomine looked back at his friend, fuming. Was he really going to take this stranger kid's side over his, just because he might or might not want to bang him? 

It took Aomine a few moments to collect himself, and in the end he just shrugged. Said, "Whatever. Play with the Slytherin boy for all I care. I'm going to sleep." He turned around and left then, fully expecting Kagami to be right behind him. 

Halfway to the castle he realized that Kagami wasn't walking with him, and instead chose to stay behind with the blond. 

Aomine tried to not let it get to him, but he couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed by the whole thing. He knew that he had a short fuse, and he knew that he might have overreacted down there with Kise. But Kagami shouldn't have stayed behind. He was supposed to follow Aomine back to their room and get annoyed with him for how he acted, and then forget about the whole thing by nightfall.  

He shouldn't have stayed behind with Kise.  

Aomine had spent the rest of the afternoon fuming in his room, reading quidditch magazines half-heartedly and trying without success to take a nap. He was still expecting Kagami to walk in any minute now, but as evening came along he came to the realization that Kagami wasn't going to show up. With an annoyed sigh he rolled out of bed, deciding that he should just go to dinner and forget about his so-called 'friend'. 

The Great Hall looked great on Christmas; there was fake snow everywhere, big oak trees shining with sparkling red, gold and blue lights, and golden candles floated around the room, giving the whole place a warm, cozy feeling to it. Aomine had never spent a holiday at the castle before, and quite frankly, he was impressed. 

It was still a bit early and not everyone showed up to dinner yet; only about a handful of kids were already seated at the large table. Since there was such a small amount of people staying in, there wasn't much of a reason to eat in separate tables, and Aomine could see students from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw sitting together comfortably. There weren't a lot of Slytherins staying at Hogwarts during the holiday usually, since their families liked to keep up appearance as a united front. It wouldn't look too good if their kids were staying at school and not spending time with their families, attending as many social events as possible.  

Aomine sat down alone in the middle of the table, looking at the other students in boredom. He didn't recognize any of them, most of the kids belonging to younger years. He recognized Kise's brother sitting at the edge of the table with a friend of his, laughing quietly at something that she said.  

It took the kid a while to get used to being in Gryffindor. His parents didn't approve whatsoever, and Aomine heard from Kagami that they had sent the headmaster a letter of complaint, demanding him to put their youngest son into Slytherin, where he belongs, and getting absolutely furious after he flat out refused to do so. His parents weren't the only ones giving him problems for his Sorting. A few of the Slytherin first years, who he probably knew since he was a baby, called him a traitor and other derogatory names, made fun on him and mocked his 'pathetic Gryffindor heart'. As if being a Gryffindor was something to be ashamed of. 

The only reason Aomine knew so much about the first year was because of Kagami, who was really upset by the whole thing. Coming from a pureblooded family himself, though a less pretentious one, he knew all about the struggle of pleasing your parents and going in their footsteps. "It just sucks that he has to go through it," he had told Aomine on the first week of school, after he took points off of some kids who ridiculed the blond kid. "He gets bullshit from home and from here, and it's just like he doesn't belong anywhere. He's not completely accepted into Gryffindor yet, and he's definitely not going to be accepted by the Slytherins. So he's kind of in between. It really sucks." 

Now, it seemed like the kid was finally accepted into Gryffindor. He looked less gloomy and more vibrant, resembling his brother a little bit more with each passing day. He wasn't as bright as him yet, but he was getting there. 

That said brother walked into the Great Hall not a minute later, with a smiling Kagami at his side. The sight of them laughing together made Aomine scowl deeply, and he averted his eyes to not look at them anymore. 

A few seconds later he felt someone sliding into the seat next to him, smelling of sweat and grass and mud. 

"Had fun with your little boyfriend?" Aomine asked, trying to keep his voice leveled. 

"Not my boyfriend," Kagami replied instantly, "And yeah. It was fun." 

Aomine couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Great." 

Kagami hesitated for a moment. Then said, "You should've stayed, you know. You didn't have to go." 

"I prefer not being a third wheel, thanks." 

"Fuck, Aomine, it's not like that," Kagami insisted, blushing furiously. "We had a one-on-one." 

Aomine raised his eyebrows at that. "So, you preferred to have a one-on-one with a fourth year loser than with me?"  

"Jealous?" Kagami smirked. 

"Hardly. Surprised is more like it." 

"He's really good," Kagami said. "I didn't expect him to be this good. He's better than all of the other Slytherin chasers combined." 

Aomine raised a skeptical eyebrow at that. "Oh please. You were probably too busy ogling him than actually playing. Of course you thought he was good." 

"I didn't ogle him," Kagami insisted. "He's seriously good. You should play against him, you'll see." 

"He's not worth my time," Aomine replied in a haughty tone. "And if he's so good then why isn't he on the team?" 

"He said that he doesn't feel too passionate about the sport to be on the team," Kagami said with a shake of his head, as if not able to comprehend how someone can say something like that. "But if he actually tried out to the team, he would make it for sure." 

"I think you're full of shit, mate." 

Kagami shrugged. "Don't believe me. I'm saying the truth though." 

"Whatever," Aomine said. Then, "So you'd spent all those hours just flying around like a knob with the blond kid?" 

"He's not a kid, he's barely a year younger than us," Kagami said. "And we talked for a bit. Did you know that he's the only Slytherin staying here this week?" 

"Really? How terrible," Aomine said in boredom. 

"Yeah, he only stayed because of Shinji," Kagami said. "Their parents didn't allow him to come home this holiday. Told him it was because he disgraced them and that he needed time to reflect." 

Aomine frowned. "That's bullshit. What does he even have to reflect on? He didn't purposely chose to get sorted into this house." 

Kagami nodded. "Kise said that he cried about it the entire day after getting their letter. Said that he felt ashamed for letting them down." Kagami glanced at the end of the table, where the two siblings were sitting together with a few other students, the older blond in the middle of recounting a story to the rest of the group, all of them listening intently. His charisma was obvious, and it was also clear that he loved being the center of attention, thrived on it by the looks of it.  

Aomine turned his eyes away from him.  

"He shouldn't be ashamed of it," Aomine told Kagami. "He should be proud. Being a Gryffindor means that he's brave, and a Gryffindor in a house full of Slytherins just means that he's even braver than most." 

Kagami looked at him funnily after he finished speaking, which made his cheeks flush slightly. "Why are you looking at me like that, moron?" 

Kagami shook his head. "It's nothing, it's just... that's exactly what Kise told him." 

Aomine ran a hand through his hair. Said, "Well, the kid has a way with words then." 

"You shouldn't be so harsh toward him," Kagami said. "I know that you hate the Slytherins, but I think that you'd get along well if you just gave him a chance." 

"Look, Kagami, I know that you want your friend and your future husband to get along. I get it. But forget it. I have a big enough group of friends as it is, and I'm not looking to expand it." 

"You're like an old man, I swear to god," Kagami said. 

"Whatever you say," Aomine said at the same moment that food appeared on the table. "Now pass me the chicken, you big oaf."

 

**~oOo~**

 

 

Aomine had spent the next day uncharacteristically holed up in the library, finishing up his homework for all of his classes. The demands this year were much higher than he expected them to be, and he had to be on top of things if he wanted to have a successful Quidditch year. It would be almost impossible to concentrate on both Quidditch and schoolwork, especially with their O.W.L.S coming up at the end of the year. He had to take responsibility and study, despite his desire to just spend the entire holiday sleeping. 

He got back to the common room when it got dark outside, his head pounding from the excessive thinking, and the first thing he noticed when he walked inside was Kagami, sitting at one of the comfortable armchairs next to the fireplace, laughing loudly. 

The second thing he noticed was two first years, one blond and the other brunette, sitting cross-legged on the floor. 

The third thing he noticed was a blond boy with a green-and-silver tie, talking animatedly to the three of them, wild hand gestures and all. 

A part of him wanted to ignore them and go to sleep. A part of him wanted to interrupt them. 

He was about to make a quiet escape to his room when Kagami's eyes landed on him. "Here's the dork! Did you enjoy studying on your free time?" 

The three other heads turned to him immediately. He ignored them and turned to sit at a vacant chair next to them. He said, "I'd punch you but I'm too tired." 

Kagami smiled. "You must be exhausted then. You never pass on a chance to punch anyone." 

Aomine flipped him off and turned to look at the blond sitting opposite him. "Don't you have a common room of your own to sit in?" 

Kise's face was blank when he looked back at him. "It's too quiet," he said simply. "I like being in loud places." 

"We were there before," Kise's brother, Shinji, said excitedly. "I've never been there before today, it's so cool! The Giant Squid was right outside the window, and he knocked on it with his tentacle like he wanted us to look at him!" 

Kise's previously blank face quickly morphed into exasperation. "For the last time, Shinji, he didn't knock on it  _purposely_. It was obviously just an accidental noise, you're way too excited about it." 

"You're just jealous because I have a better friendship with him than you do." 

"Why would I want to be friends with a  _squid_?" 

"Who wouldn't want to be friends with a squid?" 

" _I_ want to be friends with a squid," Shinji's brunette friend piped up loyally.  

Shinji looked at his brother in victory. "See?" 

"All I see is that you found a friend as weird as you," Kise replied, though not unkindly. 

Shinji got up from his position on the floor, his friend doing the same instantly. "You're so mean that you drive everyone away," he said, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly as if he was trying hard not to smile. "I'll leave you here to ponder over what you said. See you later when you're ready to apologize." And with that, he turned and made his way to the stairs with his friend in toe. 

Kise rolled his eyes, smiling widely. "So dramatic," he said. 

"You love it though," Kagami reasoned. 

"Yes," Kise agreed. "Yes I do."

The three of them continued to sit there for the next half hour, the conversation between Kise and Kagami flowing easily. Aomine opted to just look at them conversing without contributing, figuring that it would be better if he just let Kagami try and flirt with the blond with no interruption. He saw Kagami's eyes light up whenever Kise laughed at something he said, could see his leg twitching whenever Kise revealed new information about himself. It was sickening to a degree, to see his friend so invested in this boy, who seemed completely oblivious about it. 

Aomine couldn't understand how Kise didn't notice it, but maybe he was denser than he initially thought. 

Eventually they started talking about Quidditch, and Aomine almost snorted when Kise said that when he was young he was the fastest boy on a broom and that everyone he knew told him that he'd be a professional player one day. 

He did snort unintentionally when he said that he stopped playing because it wasn't 'challenging' enough for him. 

Kise raised an eyebrow at him. "What?" 

Aomine just shook his head. "Nothing." 

"You snorted." 

"How observant of you." 

"Do you care to explain  _why_?" 

"Because," Aomine explained patiently, ignoring Kagami's pleading look, "You're so full of yourself that it's funny. Tell me, how many people did your rich dad had to pay to lose to you?" 

Kise couldn't hide his vexation anymore, a frown appearing on his face. Aomine preferred this much better than the blank look he always wore around him. "Just because I'm rich it doesn't mean that I get everything handed to me. You don't know anything about me, so stop acting like you do." 

Aomine shrugged. Said, "Whatever you say, pretty boy." 

Kise huffed loudly, then rose from his seat. "Get up," he said to Aomine in irritation.  

Aomine smirked. "Are you going to fight me?" He didn't get up. 

"We're going to have a match," Kise explained, his voice still thick with anger.  

Aomine looked at him in surprise. "What makes you think I'd want to have a match against you?" 

"Are you scared?" 

Aomine rolled his eyes. "Don't be an idiot. I've got nothing to prove to you anyway. Everyone here already knows that I'm the best quidditch player in this school." 

"And you think that  _I'm_  full of myself?" 

"I've earned the right to be full of myself by being far superior to everyone else," Aomine said, but got up from his seat nonetheless. "But whatever. Let's see how shitty you are on a broom, oh mighty you." He looked at the window next to him, then sat down again. 

"What are you doing?" Kise asked in surprise, already prepared to go out and get his broom.

"Unlike you, I'm not a complete moron," Aomine said simply. "We'll compete tomorrow, when it's not dark outside and we can actually see. Now go away; it's bad luck to see your competition a day before a match."

 

**~oOo~**

 

Aomine hated being proven wrong. 

To say that he underestimated Kise's abilities would be an understatement. He thought that the blond was ridiculous for challenging him like that, and was certain that the match would be done in a matter of minutes at the very most. 

He was wrong. It was both exciting and annoying. 

The rules were simple: both of them had three hoops to guard at opposite sides of the field, and the first to score ten points wins. There were no Snitch and no Bludger, just the Quaffle they had to worry about. 

The beginning was just like Aomine imagined it; he had already gained three easy points, performing difficult and complicated maneuvers on his broom, while Kise just stuck to some standard moves, not blowing him away in the least. 

Aomine laughed loudly. "C'mon, blondie. You're all big talk and no action! I'm almost disappointed." 

"Don't worry about me, Aomine," Kise shouted back, not looking too flustered by his underwhelming performance. "Just getting warmed up." 

A few seconds later Kise got the ball and flew straight to Aomine's hoops. Aomine was ready to easily defend them, when Kise suddenly dropped with his broom and - 

...made the exact same move Aomine did just a minute ago. 

It took Aomine a long time to perform this move perfectly. It only took a minute for Kise to do it just as good as him. 

Aomine couldn't help but gape at him, mouth open and everything. "The fuck was that?" He asked loudly, still unable to comprehend what just happened. 

Kise smirked, his golden eyes glinting in the sun. "I'm a fast learner," was all he said in response. 

Aomine could feel the adrenaline pulsing through his veins, an excitement he hadn't felt in a long time taking place instead of the boredom he felt before. "Alright, you shithead," he said, no malice behind his words, "I won't go easy on you anymore." 

Kise smirked back at him. "As if I'd want you to." 

It was a long match, neither of them wanting to let the other win, and Aomine was having  _fun_. He was enjoying how he could give one hundred percent without worrying about his opponent not being able to keep up with him, and he was enjoying how Kise refused to give up, even when Aomine only had to score one more point to win and he had to score four more. He enjoyed it more than he enjoyed playing against Kagami, and he didn't really understand why exactly - Kagami was just as tough and just as unrelenting - but it was different somehow. Better. 

Aomine didn't try to think why.  

In the end Aomine won, ten to seven, and both he and Kise flew back to the ground. Kise's legs gave up underneath him the moment he hit the ground, and he lied down on the grass, breathing harshly. 

Aomine followed his lead and lied down on the ground. His breathing was less erratic than Kise's, but he was still just as exhausted. 

That's why he was surprised when he heard Kise say through heavy breaths, "Let's play again." 

"Are you insane?" Aomine asked, glad that his voice didn't quiver as much as Kise's. "You can barely even breath properly." 

"But I want to play again!" he insisted, and Aomine turned his head to look at him. He looked flushed from the effort, his forehead glistening with sweat, and his hair was in disarray from the wind blowing in it. He looked so far from the immaculately perfect boy he usually was, and Aomine couldn't help but think that this suited him better, somehow. 

"I already beat you once, do you really want a repeat so soon?" Aomine asked. 

"I would beat you next time," Kise said confidently.  

"Oh really?" 

"Yes," he promised. "I'm gonna be your worst nightmare, Aominecchi." 

Aomine raised an eyebrow. "The fuck did you just call me?" 

"Aominecchi," Kise repeated. "I add '-cchi' to the names of the people I respect." 

Aomine was confused. "And you respect me?" 

Kise nodded. "Don't get me wrong, your personality sucks," he said, "But you are good at Quidditch. I have to respect you for that." 

Aomine snorted. "Geez, thank you." 

"You're welcome," Kise said graciously. He then moved into a sitting position, his breathing finally in control. "C'mon, then. Let's have another match." 

Aomine made a face, but rose from the ground. "You really are insane, did you know that?" 

"It's not insanity, it's determination. Now get up, Aominecchi, stop stalling." 

"That stupid nickname is already getting on my nerves." 

"That just makes me want to say it even more.  _Aominecchi_." 

"Piss off already. Alright, I'm ready to beat you again." 

"You're not going to beat me again,  _Aominecchi_." 

Of course he beat him again. And the time after that as well. 

Kise never lost determination though, and even after their third game, when they were both completely spent, he still managed to mutter the words, "Again." 

So yeah. Aomine didn't dislike him anymore. Whatever. 

Didn't mean that he appreciated Kagami's smug look when he and Kise sat down with him at dinner, sweating and dirty and smiling.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Kise joined the Slytherin Quidditch Team when the holiday ended.

Aomine had a feeling it had something to do with their matches. Kise refused to admit it.

Aomine was still pleased about it though.

 

**~oOo~**

 

"So, what, are you guys friends now?" 

Aomine and Kise both turned to look at Himuro, who was looking at them in mild surprise.  

Aomine rolled his eyes. "Most definitely not. We're bitter rivals. The only reason I'm talking to him right now is so I could discover all of his weaknesses and use them against him in the future." 

"Very clever," Momoi said.  

"Thank you." 

"No, but seriously," Himuro prodded, leaning against Murasakibara's arm, "When did that happen?" 

"They had basically spent the entire Christmas break playing Quidditch against each other," Kagami said, and Aomine could detect slight bitterness in his voice. "Couldn't find one without the other." 

"That's a bit of an exaggeration, Kagamicchi," Kise said, a pink color dusting his pale cheeks.  

"Completely untrue," Aomine agreed.  

A big group of people walked into the Great Hall then, and Kise's eyes scanned them in concentration before they landed on someone. He got up from his seat with an apologetic smile directed mostly toward Kagami. "Got to go, my friend's here. Talk to you later." And he walked off to the Slytherin table. He sat down next to a short boy with pale blue hair who Aomine could swear he never saw before in his life, and immediately started chatting with him enthusiastically. 

"I'm so happy to see you making new friends, Aomine," Momoi said, "Didn't think you had it in you, what with your unpleasant demeanor and all." 

Aomine tore his eyes away from Kise. "Shut up." 

She smiled slightly at him, then turned to Kagami. "So, did you have any progress with Kise? Did you ask him out yet?" 

Kagami colored immediately. "No, I didn't." 

"Oh, really?" Aomine asked with a smirk. "Then what was the whole 'Maybe next time we go to Hogsmeade I'll show you where you can get a Pumpkin Face Box' about?" 

Kagami bit his lip. "I was just being friendly." 

"No, this was your lame attempt at flirting," Aomine corrected. "But seriously, the only thing more oblivious than Kise would be a rock." 

"Kise doesn't give me the impression of being oblivious," Momoi said, ruminating. 

"Trust me, he is," Aomine said simply.  

Momoi smiled mischievously. "It's cute how well you know your new friend." 

"He's not my friend!" 

He was, kind of. Didn't mean he wanted to advertise it. 

Not like it was a big deal anyway. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who commented, bookmarked or left a kudos, it means a lot to me to see that you liked it so far!  
> Aomine is so painfully oblivious to his own feelings in this chapter that it actually hurts smh  
> Also I added a Summer Ball because I felt like it. Wanted an opportunity to make Kise go full out glam and break a few hearts  
> Hope you enjoy it!

 

 

**Chapter 2**

 

 

 

Kise became a regular fixture in their group of friends after that. 

It was almost weird how everyone had accepted him so quickly and wholeheartedly. They were a tight-knit group, not changing much in the last four years. Adding a new person shouldn't had been this easy, but Kise was apparently an exception. 

He and Momoi were like long-lost siblings, their shared interests varying from favorite food (pesto pasta) to favorite musician ("I love 'The Magical Five', _especially_ Mikey Diamond. I'd marry him in a heartbeat," Kise said to Momoi one day to her absolute delight). It seemed like a match made in heaven, to everyone but Kagami, who seemed a bit peeved by the amount of time the two shared together. 

Himuro had a harder time opening up to people than Momoi did, but even he warmed up to Kise quickly enough when Kise handed him a few pieces of candy and told him to give it to Murasakibara because the guy complained earlier about not having enough candy to last him the week. Anyone who cared about Murasakibara's consumption of candies was a worthy person in Himuro's eyes. 

And Murasakibara liked whoever Himuro liked, so his approval wasn't hard to get after that. 

Kise didn't join them by himself though. He was always accompanied by two other slytherins. 

"-I really think he's warming up to me, I _really_ do. Today, he told me to go kill myself only three times, when last year it would've been _at least_ six." 

"That's great improvement, I'm very happy for you Takao-kun." 

"Yeah, Takaocchi, I'm also very happy that your soulmate's death wish for you has decreased in the last few months." 

"Thanks, you guys!" 

Takao Kazunari was the loudest person Aomine had ever met, but he couldn't find it in himself to dislike him for that. The only thing he had to put against him was this strange and hopeless obsession he had with Midorima, who was probably the most obnoxious person Aomine knew. But whatever. Apparently the heart wants what it wants, and in Takao's case, his heart wanted a green haired, spectacles wearing, 6'5 tall guy with the emotional capacity of a toad.  

In complete contrast to Takao stood Kise's other best friend, Kuroko Tetsuya. He was quiet and short, with pale blue hair and equally pale blue eyes. It seemed like an abnormality, to include him in the same group of friends as Kise and Takao, but somehow it _worked_. They clicked in a way that Aomine found hard to understand. 

All in all, he didn't hate the new additions to their group. 

"I'm _totally_ going to wear him down eventually," Takao continued in confidence, pushing his feet on top of the table in front of him and knocking two books off it in the process. "I didn't work that hard for nothing." 

"Yeah, I mean you _did_ dedicate three years of your life into this harassment," Kise agreed while grabbing the books and placing them back on the table.  

"I still don't get what you see in him," Momoi said without lifting her eyes from her book.  

"He reminds me of a praying mantis," Takao said seriously. 

Momoi lifted her eyes at that. "Are you attracted to praying mantises? Is that a thing?" 

Takao shook his head with a smile. " _No_ , I just mean... he's weird. He looks weird and his personality is weird and I can't read him. So I want him." 

Aomine snorted quietly and Takao shoot him a smile. 

They were all sitting in the library, studying. Well, Momoi, Kise and Kuroko were anyway. Kagami and Aomine joined them after their quidditch practice ended and spent their entire time there shooting paper balls at each other as painfully as they could, and Takao joined them a few minutes later, following the steps of Midorima who immediately disappeared to a dark corner when he spotted them. 

"There are a lot of other weirdos in this school who are far more attainable than him," Momoi said, turning a page thoughtfully. "How about Sakurai? He's kind of weird." 

Takao shook his head solemnly. "Not like Midorima," he said gravely. 

"No, definitely not Sakurai," Aomine agreed. "Just imagine you banging him and all you hear from him is, 'Sorry! So sorry, sorry!'" 

"He is a bit of a wimp," Momoi said. 

"Don't say that, he seems sweet," Kise said. "I talked to him a few times, he just gets nervous easily." 

"Doesn't make him any less of a wimp." 

"God, Aominecchi, is it your mission in life to laugh at people you don't even know?" 

"Not my prime mission, but I do take pride in my accomplishments thus far." 

Kise made a face, but Aomine could see that he was fighting a smile. "You're an idiot."  

"You're the idiot." 

"You're a child." 

" _You're_  the child." 

"Hey, Kise," Kagami interrupted, looking slightly hesitant, "Do you maybe want to have a one-on-one with me?" 

Kise looked at him in confusion. "Didn't you just return from a practice an hour ago?" 

Kagami blushed. "Yeah, I did, but... you can never have too much practice, y'know?" 

Kise looked at him in consideration for a second, then smiled his usual, blinding smile. "Yeah, that sounds good Kagamicchi. I'm done with studying anyway, so let's go!" 

And with that they walked off, Kagami with a pink but pleased face and Kise with his glinting eyes and big smile. 

"Kagami-kun seems to be really taken by Kise-kun," Kuroko commented, looking after the pair. 

Aomine rolled his eyes. "You could say that, yeah." 

"We're all rooting for them," Momoi supplied with a smile. 

Kuroko nodded his head, seemingly deep in thought. "Hmm." 

Takao shifted a bit in his seat. Said, "Well, Kagami has a bit of a competition then." 

Momoi frowned. "What do you mean?" 

"There are a lot of people after Kise's ass," Takao said simply. "It's been like that ever since our first year." 

"Does it mean that he sleeps around then?" Momoi asked, frown still present. 

Aomine's leg twitched involuntarily. 

"No, he doesn't," Kuroko said quietly. "Takao just meant that he had rejected quite a lot of people over the past few years. Kagami might be heading for disappointment." 

"Why would he reject Kagami?" Momoi asked in annoyance. "He's a good guy." 

"We're not saying that he's going to reject him. We're just saying that he _might_." 

Momoi ran a hand through her hair. "Kagami really likes him," she said. "I don't think I've ever seen him liking someone before. I'd hate for it not to work out." 

"You're way too invested in Kagami's love life," Aomine said. 

"Because up until this year he didn't have any!" Momoi reasoned.  

"He _still_ doesn't have any." 

Momoi gave him an unimpressed look and returned to her book. 

Aomine stood up. "Alright, as much as it delighted me to talk about crushes and boys like a fucking school girl, I'm gonna go. Feel free to stare at my ass as I walk away." 

As he turned around and started making his way to the door he heard a wolf whistle from Takao and a "You wish!" from Momoi, and he couldn't help but crack a smile. 

 

**~oOo~**

 

Gryffindor won 320-150 against Slytherin on their first match of the season, to the absolute delight of Aomine. 

"You guys are such losers!" he said cheerfully to Kise after the game, "Tell me, how does it feel to be a part of such a sad, crappy team?" 

"Oh, _please_. If it wasn't for your seeker we would've won. We were neck and neck the entire game," Kise said grumpily. 

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear your pathetic excuse with my victorious ears." 

Kagami rolled his eyes. "You were really good, Kise," he complimented the blond, who smiled to him in return.  

"Thanks, Kagamicchi, you were brilliant too." 

"You want to know what was _my_ favorite moment in the game?" Aomine said, still gloating. 

"Not in the slightest -" 

" - _my_ favorite moment was when Kise almost fell off his broom after an unsuccessful attempt at scoring a point," Aomine finished smugly. 

Kise smiled sweetly at him. " _My_ favorite moment was when a bludger hit you in the back." 

"Kise, you sadist." 

"Only when it comes to you." 

"You shithead -" 

"Hey, Kise," Kagami quickly butted in, "We're having a victory party in our common room tonight, do you want to come?" 

Kise raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to turn me into a traitor? Celebrate the opponent team's win?" 

"No," Kagami said, "I just thought that because we're friends, you know, that you might want to..." Kagami blushed. 

Kise smiled fondly at him. "I'd love to celebrate your victory with you, Kagamicchi, I really would, but I'm so beat right now. Maybe another time?" 

"Yeah, maybe the next time Gryffindor beats Slytherin," Aomine said. 

"Yeah, alright, next time," Kagami agreed, ignoring Aomine. 

Kise clapped Kagami on the back in a friendly way. "Try not to have too much fun without me, Kagamicchi," he said, then turned to Aomine. "Bye Aominecchi." 

"Bye loser." 

Aomine could swear that he saw the hint of a smile on Kise's face before he turned around and headed back to the castle.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Kagami had spent the entire night drinking and sulking about Kise not being there.

Aomine had spent the entire night laughing at him.

 

**~oOo~**

 

"You're staring." 

"I'm not staring." 

"Fine, then you're gazing." 

"I'm not _gazing_." 

"You so are." 

"No I'm not!" 

"Shut up you moron and stop looking at him." 

Kagami tore his gaze away from Kise and looked at Aomine. "He's helping his brother with his homework," he said dumbly. 

Aomine raised an eyebrow." Am, okay? I have eyes you idiot." 

"No, I mean..." Kagami shook his head. "He's _helping_ his brother with his homework." 

"Is this sentence going to lead somewhere, or are you just going to repeat it over and over again like it's supposed to mean something?" 

"I just think it's cute," Kagami explained. 

Aomine made a face. "Ew, are you turned on? I don't want to talk to you when you're turned on." 

Kagami punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Don't be an asshole." 

"Asking Aomine not to be an asshole is like asking a fish not to swim," came the sound of Momoi from behind them, and a moment later she was sitting next to Kagami. 

"Ah, Momoi, you came just in time to watch Kagami's ovaries explode," Aomine smirked. 

"See? He can't stop being an asshole," Momoi said. 

"It is in my nature," Aomine agreed. 

Momoi grabbed a pitcher of lemonade and poured some into a clean glass. "So, the Summer Ball is three months away." 

Aomine made a face. "Who cares?" 

"A lot of people care," Momoi said. "I still need to buy a dress, and I still need someone to ask me to go with him, and there's so little time." 

"It's three months, it's plenty of time." 

"If you were a girl you would've understood the pressure," Momoi said bitterly.  

"As if there weren't enough reasons already to be glad I'm not a girl." 

"Are you seriously that nervous about the ball when our O.W.L.s exams are on the same month?" Kagami asked in confusion. 

"Well, obviously I'm also nervous about the O.W.L.s," Momoi said with a roll of her eyes. "You just don't understand." 

They stayed quiet for a while, all of them invested in their food (with Kagami sneaking secretive glances at Kise every few seconds), until Momoi said, "Are you going to ask him then?" 

Kagami kept his face blank. "Who?" 

"Don't play with me, Kagami." 

He sighed. "I don't know." 

"I think you should," Momoi said. 

Kagami just hummed in response. 

"What are you talking about?" they heard a familiar voice saying, and Kagami instantly blushed. 

"Nothing," he said the exact same moment Momoi said, "The Summer Ball." 

"Oh," Kise smiled as he sat down next to Aomine, "It's still a while away though." 

"Momoi is feeling the pressure already," Aomine said simply. 

"What if no one's going to ask me?" she said with a frown. 

Kise raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What are you talking about, Momoicchi? You're gorgeous, you're going to have a line of men wishing to have you as their date." 

Momoi smiled fondly at him. "You're exaggerating." 

"Actually I'm understating," he said with a wink. He shifted a bit in his seat so he could get to a plate of chicken, his right leg pressing against Aomine's left one.  

He didn't move his leg even after he brought the plate closer to him.  

"Did you put a thought into who you'd like to take to the ball?" Momoi asked conversationally, looking at Kagami from the corner of her eye. 

Kise moved a bit in his seat, his leg pressing even more against Aomine's. He could feel the heat radiating off the leg climb all the way from his own leg to the back of his neck, making him feel incredibly warm all of a sudden. 

"I didn't put too much thought into it," Kise said. "I mean, there is someone I want to ask me, but -" 

"Who is it? Is it someone we know?" Momoi jumped in quickly, her eyes glinting with excitement. 

Kagami seemed to be very interested in his plate all of a sudden, but was obviously listening intently. 

Kise just laughed. "Wouldn't you like to know. I think I'll keep it a secret for now. See if he'll actually ask me." 

"So it's a _he_ then," Momoi said in satisfaction.  

Kise rolled his eyes and smiled. "Yep." 

Momoi hummed quietly, then turned to Aomine. "What about you, Aomine, anyone you'd like to take?" 

It took Aomine a moment to realize she was talking to him. He found it hard to concentrate on anything other than Kise's leg. 

"Ah," he said finally, "Maybe Hisakawa Akemi? She's got a nice rack." 

Kise's leg moved immediately so it didn't touch his anymore. Aomine's heart was still beating faster than usual.

He decided to attribute it to the idea of possibly seeing Hisakawa's breasts up close and bare. Deep down he knew it wasn't the reason.

"A nice rack doesn't make up for a terrible personality," Momoi said while scrunching her nose up in disgust, "She's a complete bitch." 

"That might be true, but her nice rack makes it easier for me to not concentrate on anything she says or does," Aomine reasoned.  

Kagami snorted. "You should set your priorities straight." 

Aomine just shrugged in response.

Kise swallowed quickly the last of his chicken and stood up. "I promised Kurokocchi I'd meet him at the library, so I'll see you guys later," he said brightly before walking off.

Kagami sighed deeply, his eyes trained on Kise's back. Aomine kicked him.

" _Ow_ , why did you kick me?"

"You're kickable. You have a quality that makes people want to kick you."

"That's not even a thing, you idiot."

"It obviously is, you're a prime example of it."

" _Shut up_ you moron."

Aomine kicked him again. 

Momoi stood up from her seat and walked away with a mumble of, "Two overgrown children, I swear to god..."

 

**~oOo~**

 

Over the next few months Aomine and Kise played quite a few one-on-ones, and not once did Kise win, though he always came close, and every time he was more determined than before to play again right after losing. 

Today was an exception. 

He had lost pretty spectacularly, only scoring 5 points, and Aomine couldn't help but feel disappointed. 

"What, did you finally give up?" he asked the blond incredulously. 

Kise simply flew down and sat on the grass cross-legged, his broom lying next to him. 

Aomine followed his lead immediately and sat down next to him, his brows furrowed. "Fuck's wrong with you?" 

Kise shrugged. "Nothing. Just tired." 

"Bullshit, man." 

A small smile appeared on Kise's face. "If I didn't know any better I'd think you're worried about me." 

"Lucky you do know better," Aomine replied. 

Kise ran his fingers through some strands of grass, a frown line appearing between his brows. Said, "It's my parents." 

Aomine looked at the Whomping Willow punching a bird and waited for Kise to continue. 

"They sent another letter," Kise continued, "Wrote again about their unending disappointment in case we somehow forgot. Shinji cried." 

Aomine grimaced. "Don't take it the wrong way, but your parents are bitches." 

Kise laughed shakily. "Takes one to know one, isn't that the saying?" 

"Piss off, man. I'm trying to help here." 

"I know, I know." Kise's legs were now pressed against his chest, his knees bent. "And you're right, they are kind of... yeah." He cleared his throat, seemingly trying to think of a way to put his thoughts into words, then said, "They were always harder on me growing up, called me a Mudbloods' Lover." He rolled his eyes at the sight of Aomine's annoyance. "I know, it's ridiculous, but they were brought up believing that muggles are the scum of the earth. There's not much I can do about it, I can't change their way of thinking." 

"Didn't they try to bring you up believing the same things?" Aomine asked in confusion. 

"I'm pretty sure they tried, but I never really cared about the whole blood status thing," Kise answered. "I don't know, it's just... we're different, my parents and I. Shinji too. I always knew he wasn't going to follow their beliefs." 

"It's always the quiet ones who turn out to be the biggest rebels." 

Kise nodded with a smile. "I guess so. He's not built to deal with their criticism though. He takes everything to heart. He's really oversensitive. I get it, though, they're his parents." 

"They're your parents too." 

"I'd learnt to detach myself from them a long time ago," Kise said dismissively, "I don't actually care about what they think of me." He made a face. Said, "I just wish they'd return to harass me and stop harassing Shinji. I hate seeing him so upset all the time." 

"What were they harassing you about?" Aomine asked with a raised eyebrow.  

"Present tense, the harassment doesn't stop, it just got a bit less consistent now that Shinji is the latest 'disgrace'," Kise said stiffly. "They want me to marry someone from a respectable pureblooded family. Keep throwing me at guys and girls that they deem acceptable." 

Kagami was from a pureblooded family. Aomine didn't dwell on it too much. "And you don't want that?" 

Kise looked at him for a moment, pondering the question. "I just want to be happy," he said finally. 

"Happiness is overrated, blondie." 

Kise exhaled loudly. "You're just full of crappy lines, aren't you?" 

"Well, you turned me into a shrink, so I'm just trying to play the part." 

Kise glanced at him quickly before looking away again. "I'm sorry, I'm ranting, I know. It just pisses me off." 

"I get that. I'm kinda pissed off on your behalf now, too." 

Kise looked at him weirdly. "Yeah?" 

Aomine nodded and stood up. "I'm actually gonna go now on my way to punch the living shit out of them, if that's alright with you." 

Kise snorted and stood up as well. "Are you going to walk all the way over there?" 

"I have a broom, idiot." 

"Your ass will be sore for a month if you'd fly all the way to my house." 

Aomine was on the verge of saying something dirty in response, then stopped himself. "Alright, you convinced me," he said, "But who am I going to punch now?" 

Kise raised an eyebrow. "There's someone from the Gryffindor house, you might know him. Obnoxious, bratty, full of himself..." 

Aomine nodded his head. "I think I know of him. Red hair, weird eyebrows?" 

"More like blue hair and dumb eyes." 

Aomine smirked. "I can't punch him. It might mess with his perfection." 

Kise laughed. "Oh is that so?" 

Aomine nodded gravely. "I'm afraid so. But there is this blond kid from Slytherin. Very annoying and loud, makes everyone want to throw up just at the sight of him -" He moved forward as he said that, his hand balled up by his side, ready for a punch, when the blond swiftly kicked his leg and ran off toward the castle, laughing. 

"Come here, you shitbag, I'm trying to do the world a favor!" Aomine cried dramatically, following him to the castle, a smile of his own threatening to appear. 

 

An hour later Aomine sat down with Kagami, Momoi, Himuro and Murasakibara at the Gryffindor table for dinner, with Kise, Kuroko and Takao opting to sit at the Slytherin table with some of their other friends. 

"Had fun on your one-on-one?" Kagami asked while eating. 

Aomine chanced a quick glance at Kise, who was laughing at something Kuroko said, and replied, "Yeah. I did." 

 

**~oOo~**

 

A Hogsmeade trip was planned to occur during the first weekend of May, and to say that Kagami was excited about it would be an understatement. 

"I've been waiting for so long to go to Spintwitches Sporting Needs, my Quidditch gloves are completely torn," he told Kise and Kuroko happily, "I couldn't even repair them with magic, it just tore them further, and with our upcoming game against Hufflepuff, this trip couldn't have come at a better time." 

"What kind of spell did you try on it?" Kuroko asked. 

"Reparo, but I was always bad at this spell." 

"If you pronounce it like that then I'm not surprised. You should emphasize the 'Pah', not the 'Reh'." 

"Oh." 

"I can fix it for you if you want." 

"Nah, I already threw them away. But thanks." 

"You're welcome, Kagami-kun." 

"God you're boring," Aomine complained. "Are you going to discuss the weather as well?" 

"It's supposed to be quite sunny with a chance of clouds if I'm not mistaken," Kuroko said immediately, enticing a snort from Kagami. 

The four of them were sitting outside, taking advantage of the warm weather and bright sun. Kagami, Kuroko and Kise were all sitting comfortably in half a circle of some sort while Aomine was lying on the ground, shielding his eyes from the harsh lighting with his hand. 

"Kurokocchi, are you going to once again spend the entire time at Tomes and Scrolls?" Kise asked with a smirk. 

"I'm in dire need of more books," Kuroko replied. 

"You read for fun?" Kagami asked incredulously. 

"Of course." 

"Wow," Kagami said, as if the idea baffled him.  

Kise laughed. "Kurokocchi loves reading. He says that it stimulates his mind and opens him up to new worlds and different perspectives." 

Kagami ran a hand through his hair. "Reading just makes my head hurt, so I can't relate." 

"Maybe that's because you haven't found the right book yet," Kuroko said thoughtfully. "You can join me. See if you can find a book that sparks your interest." 

Kagami seemed to think about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, sounds good." Kuroko's smile was almost unnoticeable, but was still present. Kagami's eyes landed on Kise then, and he asked, "Are you going to join us too, Kise?" 

Kuroko's smile was quickly wiped off his face. 

Kise smiled kindly. "Yeah, I'll come with you. Shinji wanted me to get him this new book anyway." 

"That's nice," Kagami smiled. 

So, that same weekend all eight of them headed together to Hogsmeade, equipped with warm cloaks, scarves and hats. 

"Ew," Aomine said, raising the end of Kuroko's scarf. "Your scarf is hideous." 

"It's a standard Slytherin scarf." 

Aomine faked a shudder. "I know." 

They went to Spintwitches Sporting Needs first. Kagami was debating between two different gloves (" _No_ , Aomine, I'm _not_ going to choose the pink fluffy ones!"), and Takao happily bought binoculars specifically meant to use at sports events. ("To help me see Shin-chan better!"). 

They then went to Tomes and Scrolls, despite Aomine's dissent ("I don't want to look at books, goddammit"), and Kagami looked at the books on the shelves with furrowed brows.  

"I don't know, Kuroko," he said uncertainly, "I don't think these books are my style." 

"Here, I found something just for you," Aomine announced, grabbing a children's book from where it was displayed on a table. " _'The magic bean that could'_." 

"Not funny idiot." 

"Don't curse at me fuckface." 

Kise appeared next to Kagami, a book in hand. "I found the book Shinji wanted," he told him, "Do you need any help finding something for you?" 

Kagami blushed. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that." 

Aomine rolled his eyes. "I don't understand why you don't want my help. Here, I just found another gem - _'The House Elf and the ear warmers'_." 

Kise burst into laughter and hurriedly scanned the books in front of him. "This one is brilliant," he grinned, " _'The wonderfully wonderful adventure of Billy the Pygmy Puff'_." 

Aomine excitedly pointed at a book. "Don't forget about, _'A bludger's quest of love: a tragically violent affair'_." 

Kagami walked off to Kuroko, muttering, "Some help you two are." 

They headed to Honeydukes next to Murasakibara's demand, and Aomine wrinkled his nose in disgust when he saw what Kise was buying. 

"Fizzy Wizzy? What are you, five?" 

"It's tasty," Kise said defensively. 

"It's the most disgusting thing to ever be created," Aomine said, "I'm pretty sure they hung its inventor for bringing dishonor to the entire magic community." 

"No they didn't." 

"Well they should have." 

Kise put one of the pink balls in his mouth, his tongue reaching it first and giving it an experimental lick. Aomine feigned vomiting sounds while feeling his face heat up. The boy was absolutely obscene.

It didn't take long for Himuro and Murasakibara to separate from the rest of them, having planned a date at Madam Puddifoot's. Takao was the next to leave them behind, choosing to put his new binoculars into use and stalk an annoyed Midorima (" _You're literally only a foot behind me, what do you need those binoculars for?!_ "). 

The remaining five were looking at each other, trying to think of where to go next. 

"How about we go to Scrivenshaft's? I need a new quill," Momoi suggested.  

Aomine made a face. "No more needless shopping, please. I'm this close to growing a vagina." 

Momoi looked at him in disgust. "Thanks for the mental image." 

"Well, I need some ink," Kagami said, "So how about we split out? Kise, you coming with us?" 

Kise looked at him apologetically. "I'm actually with Aomine on this. I can't shop anymore, I'm sorry." 

"It's okay," Kagami promised, though Aomine could see he was disappointed. "Kuroko, do you want to come along with us?" 

Kuroko nodded, and they split up, Kagami, Momoi and Kuroko going one way, Kise and Aomine going the other. 

"Where are we going then?" Kise asked conversationally. 

"Wherever the wind leads us to," Aomine replied poetically. 

The wind apparently led them to a secluded hill at the edge of the village, and Aomine stared at the distance, where he could see snowy mountains and a frozen lake and crystal blue sky, and even he had to admit it was breathtaking. 

"It's really beautiful, isn't it?" he heard Kise say softly, and when he looked at him he could see the pink color on his cheeks, caused by the coldness. He could see the shadows his long lashes casted on his cheekbones. He could see the gold of his eyes shining bright, the yellow of his hair framing his head like a halo.  

He saw his pink tongue darting across his lower lip, moistening its chapness. 

"Yeah," he said quietly, barely even realizing that he said anything at all. 

Kise turned his face to look at him, smiling almost self-consciously as he noticed Aomine's eyes on him. "What?" 

Aomine immediately turned his eyes away, for some reason feeling a combination of shame and guilt gnawing at his insides. "Nothing," he said stiffly, then stretched his arms and faked a yawn. "Let's go, blondie, I'm beat." 

If Kise noticed Aomine's weird behavior, he didn't mention it.

 

**~oOo~**

 

"Hey, Kise, can we talk privately?" 

"Kise, I really really like you -" 

"Kise, would you go to the ball with me?" 

It had been like that for the past two weeks, students of all age groups practically falling at Kise's feet and asking him to go with them to the ball. 

At first Aomine thought it was hilarious. 

After the third time it became incredibly aggravating. 

For some reason Kise never said yes. He always made up an excuse, or just said, "I'm really flattered, I'd be honored to go with you, but you deserve someone who is one hundred percent invested in you," or some other crap to make the blow less painful. 

Kagami had been a nervous wreck. "He's going to say yes eventually," he said to Aomine and Momoi one day as they were sitting at the library, studying like maniacs because their O.W.L.s exams were barely a month away. 

Momoi had immediately silenced him. "Kagami, you know I like you, I really do, but if you say one more thing that's not related to the mating ritual of a Demiguise, I might just kill you." 

Really, with the amount of studying they had to do, and the fact that the O.W.L.s were scheduled for the entirety of the next two weeks, there was no way to concentrate on something as superficial as a ball. 

Still, Aomine knew that the ball was just three weeks away and he couldn't go there by himself, otherwise it would be embarrassing as fuck. So on the first free minute he had that week he tracked Hisakawa Akemi down and asked her to be his date, his face showcasing the indifference that he felt, and she agreed. Obviously. 

It made things much simpler then, to study without any other added responsibility. 

Two nights before their first exam they all sat at the Gryffindor table, Momoi with her head stuffed in a giant book and Kagami and Aomine staring at their almost empty plates with no appetize. 

"I don't think I'd ever seen you not hungry before," Kise said in wonder. "It's unnerving." 

"It seems like the pressure has taken its toll on the entire fifth year class," Kuroko said. 

"Makes me nervous about our next year," Kise said with a grimace. 

Takao hummed gloomily. 

"Oh, come on Takao, cheer up," Kise said with a smile, placing his hand on Takao's shoulder. 

Kagami looked at Takao in concern. "What happened to you?" 

Takao sighed theatrically. "It's Shin-chan," he said, despondent, "He rejected me 47 times this past two weeks." 

"Isn't it normal though?" Kagami asked carefully. 

Takao laughed bitterly. "Yeah, but today he was especially adamant about it," he said. "Said that he will never lower his standards so much as to even _consider_ giving me a chance. Seems like he meant that, too." 

"What a piece of shit," Aomine offered his input. 

"Yeah, you deserve better than that," Kagami agreed. 

"I tell him every day to just find someone else to pine over," Kise said, rubbing Takao's shoulder gently. "The right guy might be just under your nose, Takao." 

Takao still looked gloomy, but didn't say anything else about it. 

Kagami cleared his throat nervously. "Speaking of being rejected -" Takao's expression soured farther "- why are you rejecting all of the people asking you to go with them?" 

He was looking at Kise with a look that showed that he wanted to know the answer to that just as much as he didn't. 

Kise smiled sheepishly at that, looking at the table. "I don't know most of these people," he explained. "I want the night to be special, you know? There's not going to be another ball until I'm in my seventh year. So I guess I'm kind of waiting for someone special to ask me." 

Kagami's cheeks flushed. Aomine lowered his gaze to his plate. 

"What about you, Kagamicchi? Asked anyone yet?" Kise asked, interested. 

Kagami was even pinker than before. "No one yet, no. I - no." 

Kise smiled encouragingly. "Well, time is ticking, so you better hurry!" 

Kagami nodded feverishly. 

"What about you, Aominecchi?" Aomine raised his eyes to look at Kise, who was smiling still, his eyes trained on him. His lashes were so long it was hard not to stare at them. "Asked anyone yet?" 

Aomine shrugged. "Hisakawa Akemi," he replied. 

Kise was still smiling, though it looked a bit strained. "She's pretty," he said. "Good for you, Aominecchi." 

"She's about as pleasant as a sponge," Momoi mumbled quietly, her face still glued to her book. 

"Even while studying you still manage to leash out your animosity," Aomine said. She flipped him off, still not raising her gaze, and he smirked in response. 

"So we're the four pathetic guys without a date," Takao said with a sigh. "Lovely." 

"Three guys," Kuroko said indifferently. 

Takao frowned at him. "What?" 

"I have a date already." 

"WHAT!!" Kise and Takao cried in unison, Kise even leaping dramatically from his seat and staring at Kuroko with wide eyes. 

Kuroko rolled his eyes. "Surely it's not _that_ unbelievable." 

Kise immediately hugged him in regret. "No, Kurokocchi, that's not what we think, you know that I would date you in a heartbeat!" Kagami stiffened noticeably. "But - you didn't say anything!" 

Kuroko shrugged his shoulders. "It's not that big of a deal," he stated. "I'm not that excited." 

"Who is it then?" Takao asked, finally all traces of sadness gone. 

"Abe Jirou." 

"Are you _serious_!" Kise exclaimed excitedly. "He's so handsome and smart, Kurokocchi, and a sixth year, too! How are you not excited about it?" 

Kuroko shrugged again. "I don't know. I'm just not." 

"That's alright," Takao said with a grin, "We'll be excited for you." 

Kuroko looked at them sourly. "That's what I was afraid of." 

 

**~oOo~**

 

The next day Aomine, Kagami and Momoi were all sitting at the Gryffindor table when Kise and Kuroko walked in.

"Hey, Kise!" there was a loud shout, and immediately they could spot Takao, standing on the Slytherin table with his hands over his mouth to magnify his voice.

Kise smiled brightly back at him from his spot at the entrance. "Yes?"

"Will you go to the ball with me?"

Aomine scowled at the scene. Kagami looked pained.

Kise beamed at him, not sparing a look to the hundreds of students sitting there, all listening intently. "Yes!" he shouted back, his hand placed over his heart as if touched, "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!"

Takao made a fist pump in the air.

Kagami immediately stood up and left the hall.

Aomine wanted nothing more than to follow him.

 

**~oOo~**

 

In the end Kagami asked a third year girl to go to the dance with him.

Didn't stop him for sulking every time he caught Kise and Takao laughing together.

 

**~oOo~**

 

After two horrendous weeks of exams, it was finally time for the Summer Ball, which was something all of the students had been waiting for. 

Kise and Momoi were the first to leave to their dormitories to get dressed and organized. 

"I need to look good for you, Takaocchi," Kise said with a flirtatious wink, making Takao laugh and Kagami fume. 

Himuro and Murasakibara were the next to leave, probably wanting to fit in a make out session before the ball started, and not long after it was just Kagami and Aomine sitting together outside, looking at the skies turning darker and darker as the time passed. 

"I guess we should head in soon," Aomine said, not making a move to stand up.  

"Yeah," Kagami replied, looking at the lake.  

Aomine glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "You look dumber than usual." 

Kagami rolled his eyes but stayed quiet. 

That made Aomine a bit worried. Kagami always had a comeback, no matter how shitty it was. 

"Hey," he said, nudging his knee with his foot, "Why are you so grumpy?" 

Kagami sighed. "I don't want to go to the ball." 

"Is it because of..." Aomine trailed off, knowing that Kagami knew exactly who he was talking about. 

Kagami nodded. "I didn't even know they were a thing," he said in annoyance. "I was building myself up for asking him, and then... it sucks." He sighed again. "Last thing I want is to see them together and feel like a pathetic loser for being jealous. And, I mean, they make sense, you know? They're both good looking, they're good friends. And now that Takao gave up on Midorima for good... I guess I should've seen it coming." 

Aomine didn't know what to say to that, so he stayed quiet. The thing was, Kise and Takao never really addressed their newfound 'relationship', but Aomine could still see where Kagami got the impression that they were truly a thing. They spent the last two weeks practically glued to each other's side, more so than usual, and Aomine caught them holding hands a couple of times. 

So yeah. Maybe they really were a thing now. 

The idea didn't sit well with him in the slightest, and Aomine hoped that it was because he felt bad for Kagami. 

They stayed quiet for a long time, both deep in thought. In the end Aomine finally pulled himself up on his feet and kicked Kagami's leg lightly. Said, "C'mon, loser. Let's get dressed and get this shit over with." 

It took both Kagami and Aomine literally five minutes to get ready, and they spent the rest of the time throwing shoes at one another, trying to hit each other's heads. 

It kind of amused Aomine to see the other Gryffindor fifth years in his room looking incredibly nervous. It was just a ball, nothing to sweat about, and he told them that. 

"You should be more nervous than any of us," one of them said in annoyance, "You're going with the hottest girl in our year." 

Aomine just shrugged. "Nervousness is for pussies," he replied, smirking at the angry looks on all of their faces. 

And really, he didn't see any reason to be nervous, even if Hisakawa was beautiful. On the worst case scenario, he would have a boring night and go to sleep alone. On the best case scenario, he would have a not so boring night and fuck her in the bathroom. It wasn't like he was hoping for something more than that, so he didn't have anything to worry about. 

Kagami also didn't seem too worried. Disappointed would be a more appropriate term. 

When the time came, they both headed to the Great Hall, where the ball was being held. There were a ton of students there already, all of them looking their best, wearing bright colored cloaks and beautiful flowing dresses. 

"Yuck," Aomine said, "All of this merriness is making me ill." 

It drew the desirable effect, making Kagami snort a laugh instead of looking glum. 

"Aomine," he heard from behind him, and when he turned he saw the flirtatious smile of Hisakawa. She looked beautiful, wearing a tight royal blue dress that matched Aomine's cloak and accentuated her breasts quite spectacularly.  

Aomine could barely look away from them. "'Sup." 

She seemed flattered by his obvious stare and puffed her chest out farther not-so-discreetly, letting him have a better look at them. 

Aomine would've laughed if he didn't appreciate the sight so much. 

"So, you clean up nicely," Hisakawa said, running her hand down his chest. Kagami stifled a snort. "Didn't think you could turn your ruggedness down." 

Kagami didn't even bother stifling his snort now. Hisakawa sent him a murderous glare. 

She hooked her arm around his and started dragging him away from Kagami. "C'mon, let's go." 

Aomine shot her a confused look, still rooted in his place. "Where?" 

"Let's get us something to drink," she replied, still sending Kagami a glare. 

Aomine was about to go away with her when Momoi came over, holding hands with a guy whose name Aomine was pretty sure was Matsumoto. 

"Hey, have you met Yamaguchi yet?" Momoi said happily, gesturing at the guy next to her. 

Close enough. 

"Hey," Kagami said, shaking his hand in a greeting, and Yamaguchi simply nodded back at him, looking a bit out of it. If Aomine had to guess, he'd say the guy was still shocked he was here with Momoi. Aomine was a bit shocked, too, to be honest - Yamaguchi was average at best, his black hair and dark brown eyes making him blend in with the majority of the students at Hogwarts. Momoi, however, stood out from the crowd without even trying; her bright pink hair and pretty face attracted almost everyone's attention immediately, and tonight she looked even more beautiful than usual, wearing a purple frilly dress that accentuated all of her best features without making her look cheap. 

Aomine still couldn't understand why she chose this guy over the hundred other guys who asked her, but decided it didn't really matter anyway so he didn't ask.  

"Where's your date Kagami?" Momoi asked pointedly.  

Kagami looked around him, seemingly only now remembering he was supposed to be here with someone. "I have no idea," he admitted, taking a few steps away from them. "I guess I should go find her." 

He disappeared into the crowd then, and Momoi frowned. "I can't believe he forgot his date," she said. 

"I can," Aomine said. "He was always a bit slow." 

"Still," she said, "This is just... oh, here's Takao and Kise! Hey guys!" 

Aomine turned to look at the spot she was waving at and froze. 

He knew Kise was attractive. Any idiot could see it. He had golden hair and golden eyes, creamy skin and high cheekbones. 

Really, Kise's attractiveness was a well known thing and Aomine shouldn't had been this surprised. 

But fuck. 

Kise's hair was slicked back, not one stray hair out of place, and his skin was glowing, looking even softer than usual. His cheekbones were more pronounced, his lashes darker, and he just looked brighter somehow. Aomine didn't think it was possible for Kise to look even brighter than he normally was, but apparently it was. 

It was only when Kise and Takao were right there and talking to them that he realized he was staring. At _Kise_. 

Something painful clutched at his chest, and his mind immediately conjured up Kagami's face.  

Aomine immediately turned his eyes away, feeling like he was doing something forbidden by looking at him. 

He finally pulled himself together to hear what they were talking about, and then he kinda wished he didn't. " - and Kise was just taking _so long_ , I had to actually go into the bathroom and help him get dressed while he was finishing with his hair, it was ridiculous!"

Aomine tried his hardest not to imagine the scenario in his mind. 

Kise pouted. "I didn't ask you to help me get dressed." 

"No, you didn't, but you didn't give me a lot of _choice_ , now did you?" Takao said in fake annoyance. "Seriously, he was there only in his underwear and not even close to finishing. And you started getting organized before I did and I still finished an hour before you did!" 

"That's because I wanted to look nice for my date," Kise said in a haughty tone, "Unlike some other people." 

"Are you trying to say that I don't look nice enough for you?" Takao asked, his voice low. 

Kise replied by smiling sweetly at him and not saying anything. 

"Okay, that's it," Takao declared, "You just lost a dance with me. Tonight, we'll dance through only 36 songs together instead of 37." 

"No!" Kise gasped. "I take it back, I take everything back, your handsomeness made me confused!" 

Takao rubbed Kise's back comfortingly. "Yeah, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, my handsomeness _had_ caused a lot of problems throughout the years. I should've known." 

Aomine had to concentrate really hard on a spot on the floor to stop himself from frowning. 

Kise seemed to notice his quietness, because he got a bit closer to him and asked him in a quiet tone if everything's alright with him.  

Aomine simply shrugged his shoulders without looking up. He couldn't look at Kise. It was like staring directly at the sun. 

He could almost sense Kise's worried look, but thankfully Kise didn't prod for an answer, probably realizing Aomine didn't want to talk about it. 

"Hey, Kise, look," Takao said, pointing at the distance. "Isn't that Kuroko?" 

"Kurokocchi?" Kise asked, immediately looking at where Takao was pointing at. "Aw, look at him, so cute! C'mon, let's go to him." 

It was like the moment they were gone, Aomine could breathe freely again, and he just didn't  _get_  that. 

Aomine could hear a throat being cleared, and turned to look at Hisakawa, who was looking back at him impatiently. 

"Well?" she asked. 

"Well what?" he replied dumbly. 

"What about the drinks?" 

"Right," he said, "yeah. Okay."  

She plastered a smile on her face before dragging him away with her to a distant table with a punch bowl that magically filled up again whenever it got empty. 

As the night progressed, Aomine realized a few important things. 

Number one - Hisakawa was just about as fun as a rock. 

Really, he shouldn't had been that surprised about it. She didn't take sarcasm well, and preferred to hear herself talk than listening to others. All she talked about was her dress and her hair, and how they were far superior to all the other girls' here. 

Aomine preferred to hex himself than listen to her talk. 

Number two - Kagami drunk and upset was the worst combination in the universe. 

He came over to Aomine every once in a while, looking sad and pathetic, a mostly empty glass in hand, and he just kept going on and on about Kise this and Kise that and how he'd never find anyone and how he lost his chance and _shit_. Aomine almost felt sorry for his date, who was with him the entire time, looking worriedly at him while he completely ignored her. 

And number three - Kise was the most distracting creature on the face of the earth. 

Because anywhere he went, Aomine's eyes followed. When he was dancing with Takao in the middle of the dance floor, Aomine was watching. When he was laughing with Kuroko and his date next to the punch bowl, Aomine was watching. Even when he was just standing in a dark corner, drinking quietly from a cup, Aomine's eyes still immediately landed on him, as if they knew exactly where he was at all times. 

It was all getting a bit too much for him. The hall was too hot and too stuffy, and his head was pounding from both drinking and trying to figure out why in the hell he was so fixated on _Kise_ of all people, and really, all he wanted was to get outside so he could finally  _breathe_. 

"Where are you going?" Hisakawa asked him as he started making his way away from her. 

"Outside," he replied stiffly. 

"Why?" she asked in annoyance. "We haven't even danced yet." 

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Why would we?" 

She looked at him as if he was slow. "Because we're at a dance?" 

He shook his head. "I'm not dancing." 

She looked just about ready to punch him. "Then _why_ did you ask me to come with you if you weren't planning on actually _dancing_?" 

"Because I wanted to fuck you," Aomine replied simply. "Though now I think I'd rather just shoot myself." 

At first she was shocked. Then she was furious. "You're a bastard, Aomine Daiki," she said, her voice wavering with anger.  

"Whatever," he shrugged and walked off, not letting her get another word in. 

It was a relief when he was finally outside, the cold breeze hitting him instantly and clearing up his head. At first he just stood there, breathing deeply and concentrating on the coldness sipping into his body. In the end he decided that he'd rather stay here for the rest of the night than return back inside, where Hisakawa and Kagami and Kise were, so he sat down on a bench and leaned back, closing his eyes. 

He finally felt peaceful, something he didn't feel the entire night. 

Of course, the moment was too good to last for long. 

"Aominecchi? What are you doing out here?" 

Aomine instinctively opened his eyes and looked at the blond intruder, who even in the dark shone bright.  

He closed his eyes again and resumed his previous position. "Trying to rest." 

He could feel Kise sitting down next to him. "You didn't even dance," Kise said in an accusatory tone. 

"Yeah, but I stood, so I still need the rest." 

Kise stayed quiet for a while longer, and Aomine could almost relax again, until he suddenly said, "Seriously, Aominecchi, are you okay?" 

Aomine opened his eyes just to roll them. "I'm fine, moron." 

"No you're not." 

"Are you telling me how I feel now?" Aomine asked in annoyance. 

Kise shrugged. "You don't look fine." 

"I always look fine," Aomine replied. Then, "Fine. My head kinda hurts." 

"Oh. Are you coming down with an illness?" Kise asked, worried. 

No. "Yeah, maybe." 

There was suddenly something cold pressing against his forehead, and Aomine startlingly realized it was Kise's hand. 

"You do feel kind of warm," Kise said, letting his hand fall back to his side. 

Aomine wasn't surprised that he felt warm. His whole face felt like they were on fire. 

"Yeah, so you better not stay near me," he said. "Probably best if you just returned to your boyfriend then." He didn't like the fact that his words were laced with bitterness, nor did he understand what he was so bitter about. 

Kise looked at him in confusion. "Boyfriend?" 

"Yeah," Aomine said slowly, "Takao? Did you forget who he is?" 

"I know exactly who he is," Kise replied, still confused. "I wasn't aware that we were boyfriends though." 

It felt like this painful knot that was inside of him the entire evening had loosened up a bit. "But you went here together." 

"Yeah, as friends," Kise said, as if it was obvious. "I mean, we had to make the announcement public and all, because I wanted to make sure everyone knew that I had a date and will stop asking me out. I know it sounds bad, but I hate rejecting people, so this was the best way, y'know? And we kinda acted it up a bit to make it more believable to the rest of the students, but... I didn't think _you'd_ fall for it." 

"You were flirting, though," Aomine said with a frown, "Even when we weren't around other students. You didn't have to act." 

"That's just how we interact with each other. It's nothing new," Kise said.

Aomine kinda felt like an idiot. "Oh," was all he managed to say.

Kise smiled at that, still looking slightly bewildered. "Can't believe you believed it," he said with a shake of his head. 

Aomine turned his face away from Kise. "Not like I cared anyway." 

Something shifted in Kise then, but it was so minuscular that Aomine let it pass. "Right," Kise said, then stood up. "I think I'll head back in then. Don't want my _boyfriend_ to make a spectacle of himself, would reflect poorly on me." 

He started making his way back to the castle then, and Aomine felt that familiar painful lurch in the bottom of his stomach.  

"Knock some sense into the kid," he said loudly after Kise, making him turn around to look back at him. "Otherwise that green-haired giant would never date him, and that would just make you a really sucky boyfriend." 

Kise smiled his brilliant, white teethed, honest smile, and the painful lurch turned into millions of tingles, spreading rapidly throughout his entire body, and all he could think about was _shit_. 

Because he knew that feeling, and he knew what it meant. 

Shit fuck shit. 

That was his fourth important lesson of the night, and probably the most important one of all. 

He liked Kise. Actually honest to god _liked_ him. 

He was so incredibly fucked.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God this took me a long ass time to write. Just didn't feel this chapter for some reason :\  
> Hope you enjoy it anyway, thank you all for reading!

 

 

**Chapter 3**

 

 

"Oh man, this is gold." 

Aomine was snickering uncontrollably, staring at Kagami's newest atrocity. 

"She got it on sale," was Kagami's embarrassed response, his arms covering his chest in defense. 

"Why are there flamingos on it?" 

"I don't know, I don't get fashion." 

"This shirt is a lot of things, but fashionable is not one of them." 

"She said I look good in it!" 

"Well, if your  _mother_  said it, then it  _must_  be true." 

Kagami exhaled loudly. "Yeah, okay. The moment I'm on the train I'll change into my robes." 

"No, you don't have to do that," Aomine said with a smirk, "I still have to take a picture of you in it." 

"C'mon, it's not that bad -" 

"Hey guys! Wow, love the shirt, Kagami, did you pick it out yourself?" 

Kagami frowned before turning to look at Takao, and Aomine absently thought that Kagami might still not know that Takao and Kise weren't actually dating. 

By the look on his face, that seemed to be the case. 

"Kagami is not old enough to be in charge of his own wardrobe," Aomine said after the silence stretched for a bit too long. 

Takao snorted while Kagami simply rolled his eyes in silence.  

"I get the struggle, man," Takao said to Kagami while putting his hand on his shoulder, seemingly unaware of the chilly demeanor of the redhead, "My mom still makes me wear a bow tie whenever we go to a formal event. Makes me go mental." 

"Hm," Kagami hummed in response, still not looking back at the dark haired male.  

"You look a bit weird, are you alright?" Takao asked in concern, only now noticing Kagami's disinterest. 

Aomine decided to make things less awkward for once. "He always looks weird. It's the eyebrows." 

"Shut up you idiot," Kagami spat out immediately. 

"Oh, now that's more like you!" Takao said encouragingly. "You know, your shirt is seriously awful, mate, the only person I know who would actually like it is -" 

" _Wow_ Kagamicchi where did you buy that cute shirt?" 

And here it was again. It was all so similar to last year, it was almost funny. The way Kagami instantly blushed just by the sound of that voice, the way the place seemed suddenly brighter than before. 

It was similar in a lot of ways, but it was also incredibly different. 

Because last year, Aomine didn't feel those tingly feelings at the tips of his fingers just by hearing that voice. Last year, Aomine's heart didn't beat faster just by looking at that face. 

Last year, Aomine could look into those eyes without feeling guilty. 

So yeah. Aomine had a bit of a problem.  

And that problem was standing right in front of him, wearing an oblivious smile and talking animatedly like he had no problem in the world. 

  

**~** **oOo** **~**  

  

The thing was, Aomine had the entire summer to figure out what he was feeling. That meant three horrid months, filled with self-reflect and shame. 

First, he tried to think back to when he actually started to like the blond in more than a friendly way. He always thought of Kise as attractive, but Aomine wasn't the type to develop feelings for anyone based solely off their appearance, Hisakawa being a good example of it. The more Aomine tried to think about it, the more he realized there wasn't a defining moment for when his feelings for Kise changed; it was gradual, changing slowly with every month that passed, every one-on-one they had, every minute they spent together. 

So Aomine decided to move onto another question, which was  _why_  he developed feelings for him.  

It was both simple and hard for him to answer that. He knew what it was that he liked about Kise - knew that he liked his determination and drive to succeed, knew that he liked his easy laugh and genuine smile. He liked how kind he was to everyone, and he also liked it when he was annoyed at something and childishly puffed his cheeks out like an angry cat. He liked the way he stood up for what he believed, no matter if he was in a minority, and he liked how he never took crap from anyone, not even from his own family. 

So Aomine knew what it was about Kise that he liked. What he didn't understand was _why_ liking all those things ultimately equaled to this desire to bend the guy over a desk and fuck him senseless. 

Because just like there were a lot of characteristics about Kise that he liked, there were also a lot of characteristics about Momoi and Kagami that he liked, yet he never once had any desire to do anything with them that was even remotely sexual. The thought alone was enough to make him shudder in disgust. 

So his answer to why he developed feelings for Kise was abstract at best, and Aomine decided not to dwell on it too much.  

And the last thing Aomine had to think about was - what he was going to do about it. 

The answer to that was ultimately a no brainer, and that was  _nothing_. There was  _nothing_  for him to do about it, not when Kagami basically called dibs on the blond since the moment he first laid his eyes on him. Aomine had no intention of making a move on someone his friend was also interested in. He wasn't that much of an ass, despite popular opinion. 

So in the end, Aomine had come to the conclusion that no matter what he was feeling right now, he'd just ignore it and hope for it to pass. Because it had to pass in the end, there wasn't a doubt in his mind about it. It was just a stupid crush, Aomine decided, nothing to worry about too much. He wasn't some weak love-struck teen who couldn't control himself.  

Everything would turn out alright in the end, Aomine thought resolutely. Kagami and Kise would start dating, Aomine's idiotic little crush would fade, and everything would be alright. 

It was all just incredibly easy in his mind. 

  

**~oOo~**

  

Now that he was sitting with Kise at a compartment all by themselves, he realized that he might had been a bit too hopeful when he thought that.  

The thing was, he needed someone else around if he was to be around Kise, otherwise he wasn't sure what he might do or think. And, unluckily for him, right now he was just sitting there in the compartment, all alone with the blond, staring like a moron out the window while the Slytherin was blabbering on and on about one thing or the other.  

He silently cursed every single one of their friends, who all abandoned him in this dire time: Momoi, Kagami and Kuroko, who were all sitting at the prefects compartment, doing whatever it was that prefects did during a train ride; Himuro and Murasakibara, who were probably getting it on in the toilets; and Takao, who, after three months away from Midorima, decided it was his time to strike again, which meant spending the entire ride annoying the green-haired Ravenclaw. 

Which left only Kise to keep him company, which was probably the worst possible outcome, and Aomine found it hard to stick with his resolve of staying detached from the blond as that said blond's voice danced around in his ears. 

"...so Shinji thought it would be wise to sit on the peacock, which is probably the stupidest thing he could've done..." 

Aomine concentrated on the sky outside. It looked brighter than yesterday. More vibrant. 

"...and the peacock just  _jumped_  and threw him off his back, it was  _amazing_ , and he ran after him trying to peck his legs..." 

The leaves also looked very vibrant. Very green. The leaves on the tree outside his house were never that green; Aomine wondered why. 

"...when Shinji started wrestling with that dragon I knew he was in trouble, he was never very athletic and there was no way he could fend off a dragon all on his own..." 

Maybe the tree outside his house was enchanted to produce only yellow leaves. That would explain it. But why would anyone want a yellow leaved tree? That was just plain ugly. 

"...we were both stuck in a death grip, the dragon not letting go, and the flames surrounded us entirely as we were whisked around by the hurricane..." 

Kise's words finally registered into Aomine's head, and he turned to give him a dumb look. "You have a dragon?" 

Kise pouted. "You didn't listen to a word I said!" 

"Why would I? You're boring." 

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm a great conversationalist," Kise said with a dismissive hand. 

"I would rather listen to Midorima lecturing about lettuce than you." 

"I will make sure to bring it to Midorima's attention then, I'm sure he'd love to give you as many lectures as you want." 

"You really are a sadist." 

"I don't like to be called that. How about 'The Inflector of Pain'?" 

Aomine snickered. "Fancy." 

Kise beamed. 

The moment Aomine felt a fluttering sensation in his stomach he immediately turned back to the window, feeling shameful for being so easy to get dragged into this banter with the blond.  

"You know, I don't remember the last time I actually talked to you," Kise said suddenly, making Aomine frown at the window.  

"Idiot. We're talking right now." 

"Very observant of you, Aominecchi. But I mean before that. Ever since the end of last year we didn't talk at all." 

That was true. After the ball, Aomine had practically avoided Kise like the plague. He was delusionally hopeful that Kise wouldn't realize it though, since the blond had about a million other friends to socialize with. Aomine was both pleased and disappointed that Kise noticed his deliberate absence. 

"Don't tell me you missed our talks," Aomine said eventually after a long pause. 

"Talking with you is always the highlight of my day." Although Aomine was certain Kise was just being the sarcastic shit that he was, he still felt a flush pinching his cheeks. Thank god his skin was dark enough to cover it. 

"Sorry that I made your life so miserable then," Aomine said. 

Kise hummed in response. He shifted a bit uncertainly in his place, then said, "I wrote you a letter." 

Aomine's heart beat faster at that. He hoped Kise wouldn't bring that up. 

"I didn't receive any letter," he said uneasily. 

Kise gave him a disbelieving look. "I wrote to ask you if you wanted to maybe catch up. I missed our one-on-ones." 

"Bummer I didn't get the letter then," Aomine said, trying to make his tone as honest as possible. 

Kise raised his eyebrow. Said, "I'm not a moron, Aominecchi. I know when you're bullshitting me." 

"I'm not -" Aomine started, but Kise immediately butted in. Said, "Don't bother. It's fine, it's, you know. Whatever. If you didn't want to meet me. But a letter back would've been nice." 

Aomine hated the look of indifference on Kise's face, only barely managing to cover up the real expression of hurt behind it. He hated that he made him look like it. 

He hesitated for a short while, trying to think of anything to say. In the end he said, "I missed our one-on-ones too." 

Kise's eyes narrowed slightly. "Are you being sarcastic?" 

"No," Aomine admitted honestly. 

Kise looked taken aback by the tone of his voice, and his expression immediately turned cheerful. "You missed me?" 

"I didn't say that, moron, I said I missed our one-on-ones!" Aomine denied immediately. 

"Which indirectly means that you missed  _me_." 

"Stop putting words in my mouth, shithead!" 

"You're probably so happy to be sitting in front of me right now," Kise went on with a big smile plastered on his face, his eyes glinting mischievously, "Your fragile heart probably can't handle the sight of me, finally in the flesh in front of you. It's alright, Aominecchi. You don't have to miss me anymore. I'm right here." 

"Fuck off," Aomine spat out, his face completely red now, and Kise just laughed loudly in response. 

"So, are you up for a one-on-one tomorrow afternoon then?" Kise asked, a smile still stretched across his face. "I practiced a lot. Reckon I'm better than you now." 

"In your dreams," Aomine replied immediately, then said in fake nonchalance, "Maybe you should try to play against Kagami though. He whined to me about playing against you the entire summer." 

Something flashed across Kise's face at that, but before Aomine could deciper what this emotion was he was already smiling pleasently. "Yeah, sure. It's always fun playing against Kagamicchi." 

Aomine almost made a face at that. Almost said, " _more fun than playing against me?_ ", jealous tone and all, but thankfully remained quiet, his face carefully formed into a blank look.  

"Yeah, whatever," he said finally. 

Kise hummed softly, looking out the window as the silence between them stretched slightly. He then said, "Kagamicchi is pretty great." 

Aomine huffed.  

"Real handsome," Kise continued, seemingly unaware of Aomine forcing himself to stay nonchalant and uninterested, "Completely ripped, too." 

"Ew, Kise, no talks like that in my vicinity," Aomine said, feeling accomplished at how uncaring his voice sounded. 

"Why?" Kise asked, raising an eyebrow. "Does it make you uncomfortable?" 

"Incredibly so." 

"Really?" Kise's tone was slightly lower than usual. Aomine's stomach flipped at how intensely he looked at him. "Why?" 

"Why what?" Aomine answered dumbly, feeling his IQ slip out of his brain due to Kise's gaze. 

"Why does it make you uncomfortable when I say stuff like that about Kagamicchi?" 

Goddammit, Kise, Aomine thought to himself as he looked away from Kise's golden, narrowed eyes. "'Cause," he said stiffly, "It's Kagami. And he's ugly as fuck." 

"No he's not," Kise replied instantly, making a shot of jealousy run threw Aomine. 

"Then why don't you date him then?" Aomine grumbled grumpily, still not looking back at the blond. 

Kise stayed silent for a while after that. Aomine thought that they were done talking about it when he finally said, "You're so stupid." 

Aomine raised his eyebrows, surprised by the words. "What makes you say that?" 

"Because you're stupid," Kise said in slight annoyance, apparently not going to elaborate farther. 

The rest of the ride was tense for both of them.

 

**~oOo~**

 

The beginning of the sixth year in Hogwarts was immensely better than the beginning of the fifth year, which was a pleasant surprise to Aomine. He could finally ditch all the lame ass classes that he hated - History of Magic, why did this subject even exist - and since the intense exams were only at the end of their seventh year, Aomine didn't have to spend every other day in the library like he did last year. Instead he decided to dedicate all of his free time into sleeping, eating and playing Quidditch. 

Only problem to his plan was Momoi, who apparently didn't get the memo that sixth year was the bomb, and still spent most of her waking hours at the library. Aomine could've been on board with that if she didn't insist on dragging him along with her, which was simply unacceptable in his opinion. 

"I could be sleeping right now," Aomine grumbled, his eyes half-closed already, trying to get comfortable on the wooden chair in the library. It was only the second week of school and it was already his third time visiting the library. Momoi was insane. 

"Studying is good for you," she replied patiently, "Otherwise your brain will rot away due to a lack of intellectual stimulation." 

Aomine eased his face into a dumb expression. Said, "Gahhhhhhhh." 

Momoi slapped his arm lightly. "You're lucky you have me." 

"Lucky?" Aomine asked incredulously, "I shouldn't even _be_ here. It's only the second week of school!" 

"I know, we should've started studying ages ago." 

"Momoi." 

"What?" 

"It's the _second week of school_." He lifted his hand when she was about to open her mouth again to shush her. "I'm going to repeat this once again, because it seems to fly over your head - Second. Week. Of school. Please let that sink in." 

"Christ, Aomine, you're such a cry-baby," Momoi said with a roll of her eyes, "All I'm doing is helping you get well educated and get ahead of your studies. Stop feeling like some sort of a victim just because there aren't a lot of homework yet." 

"You've gone completely bonkers, Momoi," Aomine said decisively and closed his eyes. 

"What are you doing?" 

"What does it look like? I'm sleeping." 

"It's a library," Momoi said in exasperation, "You can't sleep in a library." 

"You deprived me of my bed. I got to make do with what I'm given." 

"You poor baby," Momoi said mockingly. "Madam Pince will fume if she catches you." 

"I'm shaking with fear." 

He could almost feel Momoi shaking her head. "Fine, suit yourself." 

He shifted a bit in his seat after five minutes of silence. Goddamn it was uncomfortable. "Why don't you ask Kagami to accompany you to this horrific place?" he asked. 

"I asked him, but he said he has a one-on-one with Kise so I got you instead." 

Aomine frowned. Willed for the jolt of jealousy that ran through his body to die. Said, "How considerate of you." 

"I know," Momoi replied, unaware of Aomine's unwarranted annoyance. 

"If only you were considerate enough for me and my wishes," Aomine sighed wistfully. 

"If only," Momoi agreed. "I'm afraid I only have a limited amount of consideration to give around though, and I decided to spend it all on Kagami." 

"What a waste." 

They stayed quiet for a while longer, Momoi writing an essay on the longest parchment ever seen to man, and Aomine looking unfocusedly at a couple making out behind a stack of books. 

"I think this year is the year where everything will finally fall into place," Momoi said suddenly, making Aomine turn to look at her in question. 

"The fuck does that mean," Aomine asked. 

"It means," Momoi said, "That I think Kagami is finally going to ask Kise out this year." 

Aomine stayed quiet. 

"He's been practically infatuated with him for a year now," Momoi continued, "And I think he'll finally have enough courage this year to do something about it. I hope so, at least. It's beginning to be a bit painful to watch." 

Painful was putting it lightly. Seeing Kagami pine after the blond was like getting stabbed over and over again in the stomach. "You're not wrong about that," Aomine said. 

"I'm never wrong about anything. Ever." Momoi dipped her quill in the ink case. Added a few more words to her essay. Said, "You've gotten pretty close with Kise." 

Aomine really didn't want to talk about it. There was nothing in the world more uncomfortable to him than that. But still, he said, "I guess."  

"Did he ever say anything to you about Kagami?" 

"What do you think we do together, gossip about boys?" Aomine asked in annoyance.  

"Yeah." 

"Fuck off. You two are better friends than me and him anyway, didn't he say anything to you about the oaf?" 

"He always says how nice he is, but he never said anything more revealing than that," Momoi said with a shrug. "I don't know, I just thought that he might have possibly said something to you." 

Aomine scratched his leg, finding it easier to concentrate on that than to look at Momoi. "He thinks that he's handsome," he admitted finally. 

"What!" Momoi said in excitement, "Does he really?" 

"I was just as shocked as you are." 

"Oh, that's _great_ news!" Momoi said, her half-finished essay all but forgotten, "Then that means that he might like him back!" 

Aomine hoped that the fake smile on his face didn't show the bitterness behind it. "My heart can barely handle the excitement." 

 

**~oOo~**

 

Over the next few days Aomine watched Kagami and Kise's interactions very closely. More specifically, the way Kise interacted with Kagami. 

He noticed the fond look in his eyes whenever Kagami said something especially idiotic. Noticed the way he lightly touched his shoulder whenever he made Kagami laugh. They were close, and Aomine couldn't help but think about Kise's words from the train ride - _'Kagamicchi is pretty great, completely ripped, too'_ - making him feel more annoyed than ever. He was annoyed with Kagami. He was annoyed with Kise. 

Most of all, he was annoyed with himself. 

 

**~oOo~**

 

Aomine had put off having a one-on-one with Kise for a month. He felt like the more limited the time they shared together was, the better.  

But Kise was nothing but insistent, and at the beginning of October Aomine found himself flying on his broom, trying to best Kise at this game he loved so much, and fuck. He almost forgotten how fun it was.  

He hated how much he liked playing against Kise. Felt slightly high off the rush that came from the competition, from not being one hundred percent certain that he's gonna win. The competitiveness was so important to him, such an essential part of the game for him, and Kise was one of the few people who actually managed to be any competition to him.  

It would be impossible for Aomine to completely give up on their matches against each other, even if he felt like he was betraying Kagami in some way whenever his eyes lingered on Kise's face for a bit longer than necessary. 

"I'm gonna beat you next time," Kise promised after their third match, just like he always did, as he stretched his limbs while lying on the grass. 

Aomine snorted, feeling his heart beat wildly from the adrenaline of the game. "Unlikely," he said with a smile. 

"Supercilious much?" 

"If that means incredibly handsome and undeniably amazing, then yes." 

"You're completely unaware of yourself, aren't you?" 

Aomine raised an eyebrow playfully. Asked, "What? Am I not handsome enough for you?" 

The light dusting of pink on Kise's cheeks that suddenly appeared was answer enough. His heart beat, which slowed down somewhat in the last minute, picked up its fast rate once again. 

Did Kise think he was handsome? 

Kise rolled his eyes a second later. His cheeks were still slightly pink. "So cocky." 

For a wild second, Aomine wanted to test how far he could push Kise. See if his pink cheeks would turn crimson, see if he'd avoid looking at Aomine's eyes. Maybe he'd even admit to founding Aomine kind of, maybe attractive. 

But then he remembered Kagami, and the thought completely vanished.  

He cleared his throat. Said, "Whatever," because what else could he say? 

Kise looked at him with a quizzical expression on his face, making Aomine squirm uncomfortably. He remembered distantly how he said, almost a year ago, that Kise was as oblivious as they come. Looking at him now, he wasn't so sure anymore. 

Kise stood up. "Want another go?" he asked, his expression slightly more guarded than before.  

Aomine stood up as well. "Nah," he said, trying to appear nonchalant, "Don't want you to get too depressed with the amount of losses you suffer." 

The blond didn't smile at that like Aomine hoped he would. It seemed like he knew it was just an excuse Aomine used to get away from him. He didn't confront him though; simply said, "Okay then." 

Kise walked away then, retreating back to the castle, and Aomine stared at his disappearing back for a few long moments and hated himself a little. 

 

**~oOo~**

 

"Please." 

"No." 

"Please." 

"No." 

"C'mon,  _please_." 

"Fuck off. No." 

Kagami looked at him in distress. "I can't be here with him all by myself!" 

"Sure you can," Aomine insisted, "And anyway, I'm not gonna stay in Hogwarts during Christmas,  _again_ , just 'cause you're a pussy." 

"It's not about being a pussy! I can't spend the entire Christmas with him alone, I can't - what if he'd end up hating me?" 

"It's a possible outcome, not gonna lie." 

" _Seriously_ , Aomine. I'm nervous enough just at the thought of spending time with him alone for a whole day, so _two whole weeks_? I  _can't_. It's too much time to be just around each other, and what if he gets bored of me? I need you to be there too, be a buffer or something,  _please_." 

"You guys are already friends. If he's not bored of you already, then he's probably not going to be bored of you during the break." 

" _Probably_ is not a guaranteed answer." 

"Seriously, man, grow a pair." Aomine ran a hand through his hair, looking at the pleading look on Kagami's face. "Shit. What is it with your parents and all those vacations during Christmas all of a sudden? Is it that much of a bother for them to spend the break with you that they have to fly all the way to Barcelona to be free of you?" 

"They're just enjoying life, it's got nothing to do with me." 

"Yeah, right, doubtful." 

Kagami actually clasped his hands together. "Do you want me to beg? Do you _seriously_ want me to beg?" 

"You moron. Of course I want you to beg." 

"If I beg you'll stay?" 

Christ. "You're such an asshole, you know that? Forcing me into accepting your ludicrous plea." 

"Is that a yes?" Kagami's smile was almost blinding, looking more relieved than Aomine had ever seen him before. 

"Yeah, alright. But you have to beg, otherwise it's a no deal." 

"You want me to humiliate myself that much?" 

"More than anything else." 

"Okay, okay." 

Seeing Kagami on his knees, his hands clasped together and begging was probably the highlight of Aomine's life. 

All in all, it was a pretty sweet deal. 

Even if he had to deal with seeing Kise all day, every day for two whole weeks. 

He decided not to dwell too much on that little fact. 

 

**~oOo~**

 

Agreeing to Kagami's plea was shaping out to be the biggest mistake of Aomine's life. 

Kise was always _there_. He was there before he went to sleep, he was there when he woke up. It was mostly Kagami's fault - he felt bad about the fact that Kise once again was the only Slytherin at Hogwarts during Christmas, and graciously offered the blond to stay at their dormitories. "We have three extra beds here, after all," he said to Kise, blushing, "And I know none of the other guys would mind if you take their bed. So... I mean, only if you want. Of course." 

And _of course_ Kise said yes. _Of course_. Because he was a little shit who obviously took immense joy at seeing Aomine uncomfortable.  

So now he knew what Kise looked like when he was sleeping. He cursed every God known to man for making the blond so damn pretty, because fucking shit, no one should look that angelic while sleeping. 

It wasn't fair, and life wasn't fair, and the fact that Kagami asked Aomine to stay here with him wasn't fair. 

Aomine never in his life wanted to hit something more than he did during the first week of the break. 

Kagami's constant blabber about the fifth year Slytherin didn't help in the slightest. 

" - and he said that he thought the sweater my mom sent me - the one with the red snowman on it, you remember it? You said it belonged in hell - anyway, he said that it's the cutest thing he'd ever seen. Wanted me to ask my mom to get him one too! Can you believe it? They actually have the same fashion sense, introducing them to each other would be like fate - " 

Seriously, he had enough. 

He deserved a medal for all the crap he had to deal with on a daily basis.  

"Kagami," he finally snapped, and is seemed like long overdue, "I don't  _care_." 

Kagami made a face, apparently not noticing the venomous tone of his voice, and Aomine immediately continued before Kagami even managed to open his mouth. "I don't _care_ about the sweater. I don't _care_ about your mom and Kise's destiny to meet due to similar fashion sense. I just don't _care_ , and I would _highly_ appreciate it if you'd stop yapping about the guy for one second." 

Kagami looked both surprised and angry at Aomine's outburst. "I didn't realize I was that much of an annoyance to you." He sounded pissed off, and Aomine deflated slightly. Felt ashamed. It wasn't Kagami's fault that Aomine felt jealous.  

"You're not an annoyance," he said, probably the nicest thing he'd ever said to the redhead, "But just... can we please not talk about him all the time?" 

Kagami's anger seemed to had vanished as well, and he sighed. "I guess I do talk about him a bit too much," he admitted, "I don't even realize it most of the time." 

He scratched the side of his neck. Said, "I'll try to tone it down. If it bothers you that much." 

Aomine felt relieved at that, but tried not to let it show too much. "Yeah. Thanks." 

Kagami stayed silent for a moment, then chuckled. "I don't know what else to talk about, to be honest." 

"You love-sick fool," Aomine sighed exasperatedly. "Let's talk about something that will be interesting for both of us then." 

"Like what?" 

"How about the magic dildo Momoi found hidden in Himuro's suitcase?" 

Kagami blanched. "No. No no no." 

"I just don't get why he'd even need one of those. I bet Murasakibara is _huge_ -" 

"Not listening, nope," Kagami said, hands pressing tightly against his ears. "Thinking about kittens." 

" - maybe Himuro is actually using it on Murasakibara though - " 

"Puppies. Pygmy Puffs. Unicorns." 

" - Himuro's dick might not be big enough to fully stimulate Murasakibara, so maybe that's why he got a dildo - " 

"Actually," a new voice was heard, and suddenly Kise was sitting right next to them, his eyes glinting with mischief, "I got it on good authority that they both use the dildo on each other, so it's probably got nothing to do with their size and more about experimenting." 

Kagami put his head between his hands and breathed deeply. 

Any other time, Aomine would push the conversation farther, never missing an opportunity to make Kagami uncomfortable. But talking with Kise about dildos was too much for him. 

He wasn't that much of a masochist. 

So instead, he looked at the paper bag Kise brought with him. "What you got there?"  

Kise smiled brightly and pulled a bottle out of the bag, and Aomine gasped. 

"Firewhisky?" he asked in surprise, grabbing the bottle and looking at it closely.  

Kise nodded, still smiling. 

"How did you get it into Hogwarts?"  

"I have my ways," Kise answered, a look of pride on his face. 

"No kidding," Aomine said appreciatively, "Kise, you asshole." 

Kagami looked slightly hesitant. "Firewhisky is not allowed on school grounds," he said uncertainly, "What if someone catches us?" 

"Stop with your lameness for once in your life, Bakagami," Aomine said, already opening the lid expertly. "No one's here except for The Fat Lady, and she's already drunk as fuck. Live a little." 

And with that, he took a swig from the bottle, instantly feeling the burn in his throat.  

In retrospect, Aomine should've realized that drinking alcohol with both Kagami and Kise would be a bad idea. But right now, all he could think about was how badly he needed a drink, how badly he wanted not to think about anything for just one night. 

Of course, it was hard when the person who was on his mind 24/7 was also in the room with him, drinking from the same bottle as him and becoming louder and louder with each gulp he took. 

"We should play a game!" Kise exclaimed loudly an hour later, after they had finished the first bottle and were well on their way through the second.  

Kagami giggled, looking pretty out of it. He was always a light weight when it came to booze. "What kind of game?" 

Kise bit his lip (Aomine made sure not to look at it, because fuck) and said, "Never have I ever?" 

Aomine snorted. "What are we, twelve?" 

"C'mon, it would be fun!" Kise insisted, sitting more comfortably on the floor. His face was pink from the alcohol, his hair a bit mussed from continuously running his hand through it, and if there was anyone who could look beautiful even while intoxicated, it was Kise. "Okay," Kise started, thinking for a moment. "Never have I ever had sex with a girl." 

"Damn, getting right into the dirty stuff," Aomine said, taking a drink from the bottle. He didn't want to think about the implication of Kise's words - never had sex with a  _girl_. Never said anything about a boy. 

Something flashed through Kise's eyes when he saw Aomine take a drink, but he quickly concealed it and looked over at Kagami. 

"You didn't drink," he noticed. 

Kagami's face, which was already pretty red from the alcohol, turned redder. "No," was all he said. 

"So you never had sex with a girl before?" Kise asked in interest, and Aomine kinda hated how interested he was in Kagami's sex life. 

Before Kagami could respond, Aomine threw his arm around his shoulders. Said, "Our little Kagami here is a virgin." 

Kagami squeaked in embarrassment, obviously not wanting Kise to know that, but Kise just smiled brightly at him. "That's alright, Kagami!" he said, moving closer to the redhead and patting his leg comfortingly, "So am I." 

And that. Aomine didn't expect that. Not with the way Kise looked, not with the amount of girls and boys who threw themselves at him. 

It was hot as fuck, and he couldn't believe now he had to face Kise everyday knowing he was a virgin.  

The world was too cruel. 

Kagami look probably conveyed exactly what Aomine was feeling right now - a combination of shock and arousal. Mostly arousal. "Really?" he asked. 

Kise didn't seem to take notice to Kagami's expression, probably too drunk to realize how he was looking at him. "Yeah," he said, like it wasn't a big deal. Like he didn't just make Aomine's traitorous mind come up with a dozen different ways to fuck Kise and pop his cherry. "I feel like the first time should be special. There's no need to rush." 

Aomine couldn't deal with this conversation anymore. He was already feeling like he was halfway into losing it completely. "Alright, my turn," he volunteered, wanting to steer the conversation away from  _that_ , "I've never dated anyone for more than a week." 

The rest of the game was a bit boring, since Kise and Kagami barely did anything sexual and Aomine practically did everything, and in the end all three of them were perched on the sofas, in various stages of intoxication. 

Kagami was snoring loudly, already fast asleep. 

Aomine concentrated on his breathing, feeling buzzed but not too hammered. He was always proud of his ability to drink a lot without it affecting him too much, and now was not an exception.  

The alcohol apparently hit Kise harder than him though, because the next thing he knew Kise was rolling off the sofa and landing on the floor with a loud 'thud'. He groaned quietly in pain and didn't move an inch, his face facing the floor. 

Aomine looked at him from the corner of his eye for a few moments, pondering whether to stand up and help the blond or stay on the sofa and leave him lying on the floor. 

In the end he got up, feeling slightly off balance but not too much, and kicked the blond lightly on the hip. 

"Are you alive?" he asked. 

The Slytherin groaned in response. 

Aomine huffed. Put his hands underneath the blond's armpits and lifted him up on his feet (with great difficulty, Kise was a heavy fuck).  

"Jesus fuck, how much do you weigh," Aomine grumbled, making his way with the blond up the stairs. Walking on a straight surface with a deadweight Kise was already proven to be a hassle, and walking with him up the stairs was just the shittiest thing imaginable. 

Aomine was actually out of breath by the time they reached the sixth year dormitories, and he threw Kise unceremoniously on the first bed he saw (which, unfortunately, was his own. He tried not to think too hard about Kise sleeping in his bed). 

"There you go," he muttered once his hands were Kise-free. "Remind me to never get drunk with you again." 

He turned to walk away from the room, then stopped. Moved closer to Kise and, after a second of hesitance, covered him gently with his blanket.  

He looked so peaceful, and it was almost painful for him to look at him. To know that nothing could ever come of this little crush he had, or whatever the hell it was. 

He was just about to walk away when Kise opened his goddamn mouth and muttered, "I really thought that you'd ask me." 

Aomine paused. Asked, "What?" 

"To the ball," Kise explained quietly, appearing unaware that he just revealed a secret. "I thought for sure... and you didn't. Why didn't you ask me?" 

It suddenly felt hot in here, too hot, and Aomine's heart was beating a thousand miles a minute, and he couldn't  _do_  it.  

"Kise, go to sleep. You're drunk." He couldn't understand how his voice could be so steady when he was trembling inside. 

"I wanted you to, y'know?" Kise whispered. His eyes were closed now, his long lashes casting a shadow over his high cheekbones. "I would've said yes. I  _wanted_  to say yes." 

He was so beautiful lying there, and for what seemed like the hundredth time Aomine cursed Kagami silently for liking Kise first. For wanting him before Aomine did. 

It was unreasonable though; it wasn't Kagami's fault that Aomine was a shitty friend. It wasn't his fault for liking someone who Aomine ended up liking as well. 

Fate really was a cruel bitch. 

With difficulty, Aomine turned around and started making his way out of the room. He hesitated after opening the door, and chanced a glance at Kise. He was already fast asleep by now, his breathing slow, and Aomine wanted to stay. He wanted to crawl under the sheets with him, put his arm around him. He wanted to feel his heartbeat and fall asleep to the sound of it.  

He turned around and left not even a second later.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Aomine kept his distance from Kise after Christmas, and it seemed like everyone was aware of it. Momoi questioned him about it frequently, and even Takao asked him what the hell happened between the two of them. 

He always just shrugged. Said, "Everything's fine."  

Really, nothing was fine. 

It was one thing to think about Kise like that when he thought that it was just one-sided. It made his crush seem silly in some way, made him think that it would pass away quickly because it was stupid and Kise is going to be with Kagami and that's it. 

But knowing that it wasn't as one-sided as he thought... it made the whole thing seem real, like every fantasy he had of the blond could actually be fulfilled, and that made him feel excited. And that excitement made him feel like the shittiest person on the planet, because with each indecent thought he had of Kise, he felt like he was betraying Kagami farther. 

So he did what he knew best. He avoided the problem all together. 

Kise didn't have it though. Because Kise was shitty like that and never let things slide. 

So he cornered him one day, right outside of the bathroom. He looked less than impressed with Aomine, who found it easier to look at the brick wall behind him than directly at him. 

"What," he said as a way of greeting. 

"You're avoiding me," Kise said, already getting right into business. 

Aomine exhaled. Said, "I'm not." 

Kise rolled his eyes. "You are." 

"I'm not." 

"You. Are." 

"I'm not." 

"Fuck, Aomine, stop being such a child!" Kise said in an outburst, and Aomine paused in surprise. Kise rarely cursed, and he never called Aomine by his name without adding the stupid 'cchi' at the end of it.  

He must be really pissed off, Aomine realized. 

He didn't know what to say. Knew that he should probably not act like he wasn't avoiding him, since Kise was already so annoyed with him. 

Kise looked at him closely, then sighed. "I know why you do it," he said. 

Aomine ran a hand through his hair, feeling restless. "Yeah?" he asked, in lack of a better response. 

Kise nodded. "It's because of what I told you. When we were drunk." 

And damn it. Damn everything. Aomine thought for sure that Kise didn't remember. He was so shitfaced during his confession, and he didn't say anything about it for the duration of the break. 

It felt like all the air inside of Aomine left him.  

"I don't know what you're talking about," Aomine tried, but Kise just shot him an annoyed look. 

"Don't even try that. I know you remember." 

Aomine huffed, getting a bit angry himself. "Alright, so? What am I supposed to do with that?" 

"We're supposed to talk about it," Kise said in exasperation, "Clear the air. Not just leave it between us and hope that it'd go away." 

"It's not _my_ fault you decided to spout out stupid things." 

Someone was walking toward them, obviously wanting to use the bathroom, and Kise grabbed Aomine's elbow and steered him away from there and into an empty hall. 

Kise let go of his elbow and sighed. "I know you like me," he said simply. 

Aomine blanched. "Shut up. I do not." 

"Yes you do," Kise said, completely confident in his words, and apparently Aomine was completely transparent because how else could Kise know that. "It might sound vain, but I know what people look like when they want me. And I catch you looking at me like that every once in a while. And... I mind it when it's other people. But I don't mind it when it's you." 

Fuck everything. "Kagami wants you," slipped out of Aomine's mouth, because he had to remind himself of Kagami, otherwise he'd say or do something that he'd regret.  

Kise's face was more regretful now. "I know," he confessed. 

"You know?" 

"Of course I know. I've known for more than a year." 

Aomine furrowed his brows. "Why didn't you say anything then?" 

"What could I say?" Kise said, his tone softer. "I like him, he's great. I don't like him like  _that_. And I don't want to hurt him, but I don't know how to let him down gently  _without_  hurting him."  

"And you think that us being together wouldn't hurt him?"  

Kise cracked his knuckles nervously. "I just hate it," he said quietly, "Because no matter what I'll do, he's gonna get hurt." He raised his eyes and locked his gaze with Aomine. Took a step forward. "Is it unfair of me to want to put my own feelings ahead of his?" 

They were so close now. Aomine's palms were getting sweaty. Those golden eyes were looking up at him, questioning and full of desire and so, so pretty. 

Aomine stepped away. 

"He liked you first," he said stiffly, still feeling it hard to breathe even with the distance between them. "And I'm not gonna take you from him." 

"But I like _you_ ," Kise said, almost desperately. "Doesn't it matter what _I_ want?" 

Aomine hated everything. "Just shut up already." 

He walked away then, ignoring his traitorous mind that shouted at him to stay. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :\


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all of you who left a kudos, commented or bookmarked!   
> Hope you like this chapter :)

 

**Chapter 4**

 

 

"Aomine-kun, you haven't touched your food." 

Aomine locked eyes with Kuroko, who was staring unblinkingly back at him.  

He took a bite of his food, chewing it slowly. 

"What's wrong with you?" Kagami, who was sitting opposite him next to Kuroko, asked.  

Aomine swallowed. Said, "Nothing's wrong." 

"You didn't cuss out even once the entire week," Kagami said, looking concerned. "That's not normal." 

Aomine shrugged. "Just trying to straighten up my ways," he said, then added as an afterthought, "Dick." 

"Something really is wrong here," Kuroko observed, "Your tone lacked the usual joyfulness it has while saying curse words." 

"You're the one who's always lecturing me about not cursing so much," Aomine grumbled. "Shouldn't you be over the moon by that?" 

"Not when it's affecting your mood that much," Kuroko answered. 

Aomine was slightly touched by Kuroko's words, not expecting him to actually care about his well being. "My mood is just fine," he said, his tone bored.  

Kuroko and Kagami both raised a sceptical eyebrow, but didn't comment farther on the matter. 

The truth was, after Kise's confession to him, Aomine had trouble concentrating on anything that wasn't the blond. He wasn't concentrated when he had a Quidditch practice, wasn't concentrated on his food during meal, and he _definitely_ wasn't concentrated during class (though Kise wasn't the sole contributor to that problem).  

The only thing in his mind was the question  _What If_. What if Kagami wasn't attracted to Kise. What if Aomine called dibs on Kise before Kagami managed to. What if Aomine didn't care what Kagami thought and just went for it.  

It was all just highly unfair, and Kagami didn't even have a clue how much distress he brought into Aomine's life. 

Aomine glanced at Kagami's peaceful face as he bit a chunk of meat, and resented him. 

"Would you like to join Kagami-kun and I for a study session at the library?" Kuroko asked a few minutes later, after he and Kagami finished with their meals. 

Aomine rolled his eye. "Because _that_ would surely lift my poor mood." 

"I thought you said everything was fine," Kuroko said. 

Aomine kept quiet at that, feeling stupid for his slip up. 

"So, what, are you going to just stay here by yourself?" Kagami asked, looking at the empty seats around Aomine. 

Aomine shrugged. "Yeah. Better than studying." 

"Alright," Kagami said, and his eyes moved to the entrance of the Great Hall. "Just your luck, Momoi and Kise are heading over here. You won't have to sit here all alone and depressed." 

Aomine shot a quick look to where Kagami was looking, to confirm that they really were heading toward him, and stood up swiftly. 

"Changed my mind," he said, keeping his voice devoid of emotion, "I'll go with you." 

Both Kuroko and Kagami looked at him in surprise. "Are you serious?" Kagami asked, dumbfounded. 

Aomine shifted in his place, realizing how uncharacteristic it was of him to agree so readily to go to the library, of all places. "I have a Transfiguration essay that I have to turn in tomorrow and I haven't started yet," he said, which wasn't a lie actually. He forgot about the essay completely until that morning, but still couldn't find it in himself to care about finishing it. 

But now, with Kise so close to the Gryffindor table, going to the library and writing a two feet long essay seemed like a brilliant idea. 

Kagami's look of surprise turned into a look of pain. "Oh, god, I forgot about the essay," he said, and Kuroko patted his arm comfortingly. 

"I'll help you out," the shorter teen offered kindly. 

"You're younger than us," Aomine pointed out, making his way away from the Gryffindor table and making sure the path he took didn't cross Kise's.  

Kagami and Kuroko followed right behind him, and Kuroko said, "I am." 

"So how do you think you'd be of help? We're supposed to be more advanced than you." 

"You're supposed to. Sadly, that's not the case in reality." 

Aomine shook his head with a small smile. "Feeling snarky today, little Slytherin?" 

"I've grown accustomed to your daily derisive comments, and I'm making up for what you've deprived of us this past week." 

Kagami rolled his eyes. " _I_ , for one, do not miss your snide remarks. Good riddance." 

Kuroko shot him an unimpressed look. "That's not nice, Kagami-kun. That's a part of his personality. You should be more supportive." 

"Yeah, Bakagami, stop being an unsupportive ass," Aomine said with a smirk, and a banter immediately erupted between the two Gryffindors. 

Mid-banter Aomine's eyes landed on Kuroko, and he caught a small smile playing on the corner of his lips. He realized that he probably meant for that to happen. Wanted to steer the conversation in a direction where Aomine could easily put his bad mood aside and have an easy banter with his friend. 

Aomine came to the conclusion that Kuroko was kind of great.

 

**~oOo~**

 

"Aomine, we need to talk." 

Aomine opened his eyes, and an obviously annoyed Momoi was revealed in front of him. 

He groaned and shut his eyes again. 

"I'm _serious_ ," said Momoi, and Aomine felt the mattress underneath him sink at the far edge where Momoi sat down. 

Aomine turned his head so his face was squashed into his pillow. "I was sleeping," he said with a muffled voice, the pillow obstructing his mouth. 

"You're awake now, aren't you?" In a sudden move, the pillow underneath his head was snatched away, and his head hit the not overly comfortable mattress with a _thud_. 

He groaned again, more frustrated than before. "Just go away." 

"What's going on with you lately?" Momoi asked, still very much annoyed. "You barely go to class or practice, I feel like I haven't seen you in _ages_!" 

"That's a bit of an exaggeration," Aomine muttered and moved into a seating position, knowing that whatever hope he had of going back to sleep was long gone. 

"You're barely present anymore," she said, and then, in a softer tone, "Is this about Kise?" 

Aomine choked on his spit. " _What_?" he asked after a few seconds of violently coughing, "What are you talking about?" 

She couldn't know. How could she know? _Did Kise tell her_? 

"It looks like you're avoiding him," Momoi said in disapproval, "Did you two have a fight?" 

All Aomine could think at that moment was thank fuck she didn't know anything. "I'm not avoiding Kise," he said, trying to sound sincere. "I just got tired of classes and practice. Is that so unbelievable?" 

"You've always been lazy, but not to that extant." She sighed. "You can tell me if something's going on with you. I'm not gonna judge." 

Aomine hesitated. He wanted to talk to someone about it - felt almost pressured to. He needed someone to voice their opinion on the matter, to tell him what to do because he just didn't know.  

And Momoi was one of his favorite people in the world, and god it was so tempting to just reveal everything to her, every dark thought that passed through his mind in the last few months, every confusing emotion that he felt when he looked at the Slytherin. But _because_ Momoi was one of his favorite people in the world he knew that he couldn't tell her that. He could deal with disapproval and disappointment from strangers. He couldn't deal with it if it came from his best friend. 

He didn't want her to say what he feared she might tell him. Didn't want her to call him a bad person for wanting the one person he couldn't have. 

He just couldn't tell her. 

So in the end he just flopped back on his back. Said, "There's nothing going on with me, Momoi. Seriously." 

She shook her head. "You're lying," she said, as simply as that. Aomine wasn't surprised that she wasn't convinced - she always sensed it when he was being dishonest. 

So he didn't deny it. Just said, "Whatever. Can I go back to sleep now?" 

"Most certainly not," Momoi said, and with a harsh shove pushed him off the bed.  

"What the  _fuck_ , Momoi?" Aomine cried, glaring up at her from the floor. His elbow had rubbed up against the headboard during the fall and it was now hurting like a bitch. 

"We're going outside," she said chirpily, and Aomine just knew it was fake. "It's not snowing anymore and the sun is out." 

"Find someone else to go with you then," Aomine grumbled, already starting to make his way back onto the bed. 

"I want you to come with me," she said and grasped his hand in hers. "Come on." 

For such a thin girl she sure was strong. "I'm going to demote you from the position of my best friend," Aomine said, allowing her to drag him out of the room, "You only cause me suffering and it's just not worth it." 

"Shush," she said, and he shushed. 

There was seriously something wrong with Momoi, Aomine thought to himself as they stepped outside of the castle. There was no sun. It was cold as fuck, and he glared daggers at the pink haired girl next to him. 

"You call that  _nice_?" he asked incredulously as the cold wind hit them. 

She shivered violently while trying to appear unaffected by the weather. "It's just a little windy," she said, and he was certain she was trying her hardest not to turn around and go back into the warmth of the castle. 

"I don't know what your plan is," Aomine started, his teeth chattering slightly, "But whatever it is, I don't want any part in it." 

"No plan!" Momoi promised, then, " -oh, look, Kise's here! Hey Kise!" 

Aomine stiffened as he looked at the blond, who wasn't looking back at him. Instead, he himself was giving Momoi the same look Aomine gave her just a second ago. 

"Momoicchi," he said, his voice shaking, "You know I respect you a lot, but this is the stupidest idea anyone has ever came up with in the history of the universe. Why would you arrange an intervention _outside_ in _the dead of winter_?" 

Momoi gave him an apologetic look. "I didn't think it'd be that bad," she admitted, "Murasakibara said he was outside a few hours ago and that he was warm." 

"Murasakibara has enough body fat to protect himself," Aomine grumbled, his hands deep inside his pockets, seeking for warmth. "And what the hell was that about an intervention?" 

"Because you're not talking!" Momoi explained, her voice wavering from the cold, "And I hate it, I can't _stand_ it, you two are my friends and in the past few weeks you weren't even able to be in the same room together! You think the rest of us didn't notice? We aren't that thick, sadly." 

Kise took a deep breath. Aomine noticed the tips of his fingers were blue from the cold, and felt the sudden urge to cover his hands with his until they were warm again. 

He immediately suppressed the urge. 

"Okay," Kise said, shuffling forward, "Okay, but not outside Momoicchi. I don't want to freeze to death." 

Momoi quickly agreed and a few seconds later they were inside the castle, still feeling the cold deep inside their bones.  

"I don't think I'm ever going to be warm again," Kise complained, running a hand through his damp hair. His cheeks were still pinged pink from the cold, and his teeth bit his lower lip as he untangled a knot in his hair. 

Aomine looked away, feeling a tiny bit warmer. 

"Alright then," Momoi said after her body regained the necessary warmth for it to function, "Are you going to tell me what your fight was about?" 

"No," Aomine answered quickly, and Kise shot him a look. 

"No," Kise agreed, his expression unreadable.  

"Then how can I help you if I don't know the problem?" Momoi asked with a scowl. 

"We'll handle it," Aomine said, then when Momoi looked at him in apprehension said, "Really, Momoi, fuck. Have some faith." 

She clearly had no faith in him, but instead of admitting it like he thought she would she just said, "Okay. If you say so." She exhaled. "But try to make amends, alright? Because whatever's happening between you two is affecting the rest of us." 

Kise nodded, promising to try, and she walked away a moment later, leaving the two teens alone. 

A heavy silence settled between them. 

Kise, of course, was the one to finally break it. "Let's go somewhere more private," he suggested, as they were still standing at the entrance of the castle. 

Aomine nodded. Said, "Fine." 

Aomine felt incredibly awkward as they walked side by side, no words exchanged between them. He had no idea what to say to the blond, how to make amends with him, because it's not like he was mad at Kise over something trivial, like Momoi might have thought. 

After all, the only thing Kise did wrong was to be attracted to a guy who wasn't Kagami. 

Kise led them to an empty classroom and closed the door softly behind him. 

For some reason, Aomine felt like he was being trapped. 

Kise stayed by the door, looking at the floor with that same blank expression he had on before. He then looked up at Aomine, who blinked back at him, waiting for him to say the first word. 

"Are you never going to even give me a chance?" Kise asked finally, and shit, he definitely wasn't one to beat around the bush. 

Aomine sighed. "No," he said honestly. 

Kise nodded, looking detached. "And nothing I'm gonna say would convince you otherwise?" 

Aomine shook his head. 

Kise exhaled heavily. "Okay," he said, and an emotion broke through his cold exterior - disappointment. "That kinda sucks." 

Aomine agreed whole heartedly. Still, he said, "It's for the best." 

"Whose best," Kise said bitterly, and Aomine flinched. 

"Don't, Kise," he said, voice strained. "Seriously, just don't." 

Kise exhaled again. "Okay. It's not like I can force you into something you don't want." 

The thing was, they both knew he wanted it, and that's what made everything even worse. 

But Aomine didn't point it out. He simply said, "Glad we got that cleared up." 

"Yeah," Kise said, and his tone was tired all of a sudden. "So you don't have to avoid me anymore. Don't worry, I'm not gonna jump your bones in front of everyone or something." 

The image of Kise doing just that popped into his mind, and he immediately shoved the thought away. 

"You're not gonna say anything to anyone, right?" he asked Kise, because he had to make sure. 

"I'm not going to say anything," Kise promised and opened the door behind him.  

He hesitated at the entrance for a moment before he said, "You must really care about Kagamicchi." 

Aomine felt a pang of pain in his heart. "Ew," was all he said, but he knew that Kise understood the real meaning behind this word. 

_Yeah. I do._  

Kise smiled slightly at that, and it wasn't his usual smile. It held a tinge of sadness in it, and Aomine hated that smile. "See you at lunch, then." 

And he left, leaving Aomine alone in the classroom with those parting words ringing in his ears and the knowledge that nothing actually got solved between them.

 

**~oOo~**

 

On the outside, it seemed like they patched things up. Aomine didn't walk off when Kise came into his vicinity. Kise smiled when Aomine said something particularly sarcastic.  

On the outside, things were almost normal. 

But they never met up just the two of them. They stopped having one-on-ones. Never sat next to each other, never touched, never held eye contact for more than a few seconds. 

They weren't friends anymore. Not really.  

Aomine was more upset about that fact than he'd ever let on.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Things ultimately changed again between them after a particular event during a Slytherin vs Hufflepuff match.  

It seemed like as normal match as any. Kagami and Kuroko were cheering Kise and Takao on from the Slytherin crowd, while Aomine, Momoi and Himuro were with the Hufflepuff crowd, cheering Murasakibara.   

"Fuck, Murasakibara is a  _beast_ ," Aomine said, feeling slightly awed by how easily the giant blocked the Quaffle from going through the middle hoop.  

Himuro nodded his head, sending heart eyes his boyfriend's way.  

The teams seemed evenly matched, Slytherin only ahead by twenty points so far (all thanks to Kise, Aomine thought while ignoring the wave of pride that went through him), and they were already at it for an hour without once noticing the Snitch.  

Slytherin scored again, and Aomine yelled, "Stupid cunts!"  

" _Aomine_!" Momoi scoffed, her breath visible due to the cold, "Control your mouth."  

"Never," was his reply, to which he received a light punch in the arm.  

"God, I'm _freezing_ ," Momoi complained, looking at her watch, "I hope they're planning on catching the Snitch soon."  

"It's not like they can plan it," Himuro said reasonably.   

"Still," Momoi said. She stayed quiet for a few moments, her eyes moving from one player to another, then sighed. "I'm bored out of my mind. What do you even see in this sport?"  

Aomine shoved her away from him with a look of disgust. "We are not friends anymore."  

"Stop with the dramatics," Momoi said with a roll of her eyes. "Seriously. Literally _nothing_ exciting is happening -"  

Her words were swallowed down by a loud _crack_  that came from the sky, causing all three of their heads to snap in the direction of the pitch and look at what caused the sound.  

Aomine's blood turned to ice and his heart skipped a beat.  

Kise was slipping off his broom, his limbs limp, blood gushing out of his leg.  

A second later he was falling through the air, completely unconscious, and Aomine's brain completely shut down. He could barely even hear the panicked screams that erupted all around him, or the loud, distressed sobs that came from Momoi.  

All he could hear was the sound of his own heart, beating in his ears. All he could feel was the shivers in his heart, the terrified trembling of his hands.  

He couldn't even _think_ properly, he was so scared.  

And then Kise stopped falling. He hovered in the air, motionless, and was then brought to the ground gently with a flick of Madam Hooch's wand.  

"Thank fuck for magic," Aomine heard Himuro murmur next to him, but he still didn't look away from Kise.   

A pool of blood was forming under his leg, which looked absolutely  _shuttered_. The bone was sticking out of his skin, and Aomine, who was never that affected by blood and gore, felt like he was going to hurl just from looking at it.  

_What the fuck even happened._  

 

**~oOo~**

 

"I'm going to _kill_ him." 

Kise raised his eyebrows in surprise at Kagami's serious, almost dangerous tone, and hastily said, "It's okay, Kagamicchi, you shouldn't -" 

" _Shouldn't_?" Kagami said incredulously, "He knocked you out cold! Your leg is a mess... you could've  _died_." 

Kise just laughed lightly, and Aomine kind of wanted to punch him for appearing so nonchalant about it all. "The professors wouldn't have let me die," he said, as if that made things okay. "I wasn't in any danger." 

"You're in pain right now," Momoi pointed out softly. Her eyes were still red and puffy from crying, and she was gently caressing Kise's arm with the back of her hand, as if she had to touch him to make sure he was fine. 

Aomine looked at the point where she was touching him and envied her. 

A true emotion finally flickered through Kise's eyes, a pained look, as he shifted slowly in his hospital bed. Madam Pomfrey didn't tell him yet how bad the damage actually was, but the fact that his leg was still in a lot of pain meant that the injury wasn't the easiest to cure. 

"Why would Haizaki even do that?" Himuro asked with a frown, sitting in Murasakibara's lap on a nearby bed. 

"Because he's a bastard," Takao answered instead of Kise, reeling with anger. "He got jealous of Kise because his girlfriend broke up with him and started to follow Kise around like a lost puppy." 

"And his way of getting back at him was to shoot a Bludger at his leg?" Himuro asked incredulously, "Is he a moron?" 

"Yes," Kuroko and Takao answered at the same time, making Kise smile slightly. 

"Don't say that," Kise said lightly, and Aomine just about had enough. 

"Are you fucking _kidding_?" he said, his tone dark. Those were the first words he said since he came in here, and his hands were still trembling, though now more from anger than terror. 

Kise looked at him in question. "What?" 

"Why the fuck are you so okay with it!" Aomine said loudly, feeling frustrated from the blond's lack of anger, especially when he himself was _livid_. "The fuck is with that nonchalant attitude?!" 

"Aomine-kun," Kuroko said quietly, but Aomine ignored. 

"You are so _fake_ all the time, and it's pissing me off!" Aomine continued, letting all his frustration out, "Just be mad, goddammit, and stop with that fake indifference! Kagami is right, he could've killed you. What if he aimed for your head?" 

At first, Kise looked shocked at his outburst. Then, he looked slightly angry. 

Then, he was back to the masked indifference. "I rather not get worked up over nothing," he said slowly, as if he knew how annoyed Aomine would get from his words. 

" _Nothing_?!" Aomine shouted, not bothering to keep his voice quiet in the infirmary. He gestured at Kise's bandaged leg, which somehow still managed to look slightly deformed. "You call that _nothing_? You idiotic fucking -" 

"I'm going to stop you right there!" Said a stern voice from behind him, and when he turned around he saw Madam Pomfrey, looking at him with annoyance. "You will _not_ scream in my infirmary. You are disturbing the other patients here, and I'm going to have to ask you to leave." 

Aomine looked from her to Kise, who looked back at him with that same aggravating look. "Fine," he spat, and stomped off angrily, not looking back at any of his friends.

 

**~oOo~**

 

He didn't even think when he went to the library. 

Didn't even think when he spotted Haizaki there, making out with some random girl.

Didn't even think when he punched the living shit out of him, unleashing all of his anger out on him. 

He didn't even think about using his wand and hex him instead of using his bare hands. 

And when he was severely told off by the headmaster later that day and got a month's worth of detention, he still thought it was all worth it just to see Haizaki bleeding and hurting on the floor.

 

**~oOo~**

 

The next time Aomine saw Kise, he was limping toward him, a cane in hand. 

A fucking cane. 

"Is it permanent?" he asked the moment Kise was close enough to hear, fearing for a positive response. 

Kise sat down next to him, flattening the grass with his weight, and said, "Not permanent thankfully, but I do have to walk with a cane for at least a month." A grimace then appeared on his face, and he said, "Madam Pomfrey said the bones completely dislocated, and that it will take time for the potion to really kick in." 

Aomine looked at Kise's leg. "Fucking shit." 

"Yeah," Kise agreed.  

Aomine looked up from Kise's leg to his face, just to see that Kise was already watching him closely. 

He cleared his throat and looked away. Said, "I'm sorry. For flipping out on you the othe day." 

He almost never apologized for anything, and he could almost feel Kise smile. 

"It's okay," Kise said. "I get that you were stressed." 

Aomine hummed, not wanting to admit to being that affected by the blond's injury but not denying it either. 

"You were right though," Kise continued, his voice softer, quieter. "I was acting fake." 

Aomine looked at him at that. "Why?" he asked, curious. 

Kise shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I was raised up being taught to always keep my true emotions to myself. Dad always says that emotions are a weakness. I guess it just comes naturally to me, downplaying everything just because I hate confrontations. I don't even realize I do it." 

Aomine wasn't sure what to say in response, and in the end settled for, "That's fucked up." 

Kise nodded in agreement. "I really was mad," he admitted, "I wanted to break every bone in his body after I realized that he hurt me deliberately." 

"I punched him," Aomine said in a haste, and blushed when Kise's golden eyes locked with his blue ones. 

"I know," Kise said, then chuckled. "He was on the bed next to mine in the infirmary. Said something about three huge guys ganging up on him." 

Aomine snorted. "What an asshole." Then, "But how did you know it was me who punched him?" 

"I guessed," Kise said, a smile forming on his face. "Seemed like something you might do. Were you defending my honor, Aominecchi?" 

Aomine blushed. "Most definitely not. I was just in the mood for punching a moron and Kagami was too far away." 

The sound of laughter came from Kise's mouth, and Aomine felt all tingly inside. "Yeah, right," Kise said, and Aomine took in his big smile and sparkly eyes, and felt the need to punch Haizaki again for making him hurt that much. 

There was something soft brushing up again his hand, and when Aomine looked down, expecting it to be a bug or something, he realized it was the tips of Kise's fingers, lightly touching his wrist, hovering over it as if hesitant. 

Aomine's breath hitched. "Kise," he said, tone warning. 

He didn't move his hand away. 

Kise didn't move his fingers away either. He actually brought them even closer, and the touch had suddenly more pressure in it. 

The Slytherin turned his face away from Aomine and looked up at the sky. "It's a nice day today," was all he said. His fingers moved gently over his skin in an up and down motion, leaving tingles in their wake. 

Aomine breathed in deeply. "C'mon, Kise," he said quietly, praying for him to move his fingers away. Praying for him to keep them where they were. 

Kise pouted. "Am I doing something wrong?" His index and middle finger moved to caress Aomine's own middle finger, again moving up and down, and the implication wasn't lost on him. 

He closed his eyes. "You know exactly what you're doing." 

Kise's finger circled the tip of Aomine's middle finger, and he said, "Do you think it's going to be sunny for the duration of the week?" 

Aomine gave up on fighting him after that. Let the blond keep moving his fingers over him. 

It felt like he lost some sort of a battle.

 

**~oOo~**

 

The next Hogsmeade trip planned was supposed to be the next Friday, to Kise's dismay. 

"I really wanted to go with all of you," he complained as they were all, minus Takao, sitting at the Hufflepuff table, eating their lunch peacefully, "And now, because of my _stupid leg_ and my  _stupid cane_ , I can't." 

"Hogsmeade is overrated," Aomine said, his mouth full, and Momoi shot him a look of disgust. 

"Don't speak with food in your mouth," she said sternly. 

"Yes mom." 

"You only have to suffer three more weeks," Himuro said, his tone sympathetic, "And there'll be other trips." 

"The next trip is  _months_  away," Kise pouted. 

"Is there anything you'd like for us to buy for you?" Kuroko asked. 

Kise shook his head. "No, it's not about buying anything there... I just hate that I'm going to be stuck here all alone." 

Kagami cleared his throat. "I can stay with you... if you'd like," he suggested, tone hopeful. 

Kise immediately dismissed the idea, to Aomine's guilty delight. "No, I would hate for you to miss out just because of me." 

"I will not miss out if -" Kagami started, then thought the better of it and closed his mouth, looking embarrassed. 

Himuro took pleasure in Kagami's awkwardness, and said, "If what?" 

Kagami shot him a murderous glare, and Himuro just smirked back at him. "Come on, Kagami, you started saying something. What would be worth missing a trip to Hogsmeade for?" 

Aomine never wanted to hit Himuro before, but apparently there was a first for everything.  

Surprisingly, Kise was the one to make Himuro drop the conversation. "Stop making your brother uncomfortable, Himurocchi!" Kise laughed, and if Aomine didn't know any better, he'd think the blond was completely clueless. 

He did know better though. Kise was probably aware of what Kagami meant to say. Probably knew that he felt like staying here alone with Kise would be better than going out to the nearby village with all his other friends.  

Kise knew more than he let on. 

No wonder he was placed in Slytherin. He was an observant, manipulative snake. 

Momoi pushed herself away from the table after a quick glance at her watch. "We should head out now, if we want to get to class in time," she said, directing her words at Kagami, Himuro and Murasakibara. 

Kagami sighed as he got up from his seat. "Can't believe I'm voluntarily attending a class where I get regularly burned, stung and bitten." 

Aomine smirked superiorly. "Your problem for being stupid enough to keep studying Care of Magical Creatures. You should've dropped the subject, like I did." 

"It used to be fun," Kagami grumbled, "But ever since he brought those Blast-Ended Skrewts, it's been a pain in the ass." 

"They are rather violent," Momoi said. "I wonder why they let us handle them ourselves." 

"If you haven't noticed, the safety of its students is not the highest priority of this school," Himuro said while he and Murasakibara stood up as well, hand in hand. 

"I wish it was," Kagami mumbled, looking at a sore spot on the back of his hand, "Those fuckers bite hard." 

"You pussy," Aomine said happily, earning himself a slap to the back of his neck in response. 

"Asshole," Kagami said, not sounding too annoyed, then looked at Kuroko. "We still on for later?" 

Kuroko nodded. "I'll meet you at the library." 

"Cool," Kagami said, then looked at Kise. "Bye, Kise." 

"Have fun in class, Kagamicchi!" 

They walked away after that, Kagami with his usual pink cheeks, and Aomine was so glad he didn't have to go to class right now, which meant he had two free hours to nap. 

Kise was shifting in his place, and Aomine noticed he turned to fully look at Kuroko.  

"You should go for it," Kise said, his expression and tone of voice encouraging. 

Aomine looked in confusion at Kuroko, not understanding what he should go for, and when he followed Kuroko's line of sight he realized he was still watching the retreating back of Kagami, his face devoid of emotion. 

"No, Kise-kun," he said carefully, "I really shouldn't." 

"But you get along great," Kise said, "And he would be good for you!" 

Oh, Aomine thought as he looked at Kuroko's blank face.  _Oh_. 

"You like Bakagami?" he asked, curious. 

Kuroko nodded his head, not even trying to deny it. "I do." 

"Oh," Aomine said, because apparently that was the only word in his brain. "Does he know?" 

"Of course he doesn't know," Kuroko replied simply. 

"Maybe you should let him know then," Kise suggested. 

Kuroko shook his head. "He doesn't want me like that." 

"Maybe not right  _now_ , but he might if he knew how you felt!" Kise said excitedly, probably already picturing how the confession would go. "You just gotta make him notice you and your feelings." 

Kuroko's carefully masked expression broke at that, and even Aomine was surprised by the sour look behind it. 

"Notice me?" Kuroko said, his voice laced with bitterness that was incredibly uncharacteristic of him, "How could he ever notice me when I'm standing next to you?"  

Kise looked like Kuroko just slapped him. "Kurokocchi..." he said faintly, at a loss of how to continue. 

Kuroko shook his head. His expression was still bitter when he got up from his seat. "I'm used to it already, Kise-kun," he said flatly, brushing off crumbs of bread that got stuck to his robe. "I'm inferior to you, both in looks and personality. And I know that. I'm okay with being unnoticed." 

"You obviously aren't," Kise said, regaining his ability to form words. "Otherwise you wouldn't have sounded so accusatory right now." He breathed in deeply. "I didn't know you felt that way, Kurokocchi, and you _shouldn't_. You aren't inferior, you're superior. Why would you think otherwise?"  

Kuroko looked at him for a long moment, his eyes unblinking, and then turned away. "Goodbye, Kise-kun. Aomine-kun." 

He left then, despite Kise's obvious intent to keep talking with him about it. 

Kise was gloomy for the rest of the day.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Kuroko didn't look at Kagami any differently than he looked at anyone else, at least in Aomine's mind, but now that he knew how he felt he realized that it was probably intentional. Kuroko didn't want anyone to notice how he felt, and after his little outburst at Kise, Aomine wasn't that surprised about it. If he really felt like he wasn't comparable to the blond, then he obviously felt like his crush on Kagami was completely futile.  

After all, Kagami liked Kise, and had only eyes for him. Kuroko probably didn't even appear on his radar. 

Aomine wished that he did. Let himself fantasize about Kagami realizing that Kuroko was the person for him, and leaving Kise alone.  

Of course, it was a stupid fantasy. Not like it was ever going to come true. 

Still, it felt nice to entertain that idea in his head, no matter how pointless it was.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Aomine didn't have nearly as much fun as he thought he'd have when they went on the trip to Hogsmeade that weekend. He felt the missing presence of the Slytherin Blond with every step he took, with every store item he looked at. 

_Kise would like that shirt._

_Kise told me about wanting to buy that broom._

_That Snitch is the same color as Kise's eyes._

He didn't even think about it when he went to Honeydukes and bought a bag of the disgusting, fluffy pink balls that Kise liked so much. 

When they returned from Hogsmeade a few hours later and met up with Kise at the Great Hall, Aomine threw the bag at his lap without even uttering out a greeting. 

Kise scrunched his brows as he opened the small bag, then looked at Aomine in surprise. 

"You bought Fizzy Wizzy? I thought you hated that." 

Aomine nodded, sitting down opposite him. "I do. With a passion." 

"Then why did you get it?" Kise asked slowly, not understanding. 

"Because you like it," Aomine answered simply, easily, as if it wasn't a big deal. 

By the looks on Momoi and Kagami's faces, it was kind of a big deal, and Aomine felt himself flush under their stares. 

"Fuck are you looking at me like that?" he mumbled, feeling self-conscious and extremely obvious. 

Momoi shook her head, a weird look on her face. "Nothing. Just... random acts of consideration are unexpected of you." 

"Jeez, fuck you too," Aomine replied, not liking her expression one bit. 

Momoi always knew him a bit too well.  

Kise took it in stride, beaming at Aomine (probably because he knew it would make his heart flutter, that bastard), and popping the horrid balls of fluff in his mouth. 

Aomine tried unsuccessfully not to think about the words balls, mouth and Kise in the same context. 

 

**~oOo~**

 

"Fuck, mate, that was sick!" Takao said in excitement, bouncing on his legs like an energetic kid. 

Aomine felt smug and puffed his chest out. "That was nothing," he said, in a tone that was as farthest away from humble as possible. 

"Fishing for compliments," Kagami said quiet with a fond roll of his eyes. At least Aomine thought it was fond. 

"I don't have to fish for compliments," Aomine said haughtily, "People feel the need to compliment me without any prompting on my part. The notion might be weird for you though, since no one has ever complimented you before." 

"I have been complimented before, many times!" 

"Your mom doesn't count." 

"Fuck off." 

"You were both ace," Kise complimented, sending them both wide smiles.  

Kagami flushed with delight. "Thanks." 

"But I was better," Aomine said, feeling the need to hear Kise compliment him, and only him. "I scored 80 points alone. You," he pointed at Kagami with a raised eyebrow, "Only managed to score 74." 

Kagami rolled his eyes. "That's only a six points difference, you prick -" 

"And also what makes me far superior to you," Aomine added smugly. 

"Arrogant bastard," Kagami muttered, and Aomine laughed loudly, feeling lightheaded and full of adrenaline from their win. 

Kise sighed a little when he looked at the brooms in their hands, and said sadly, "I really miss flying." 

Aomine shot him a look, taking in the sad, reminiscent expression on his face. 

"Only two more weeks, man," Takao said, slinging his arm around Kise's shoulders. "And then you can throw that cane at the Whomping Willow." 

Kise smiled. "Yeah, that sounds nice." 

He still looked a bit down though.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Aomine had an idea. 

This was not a good thing, seeing as Aomine's ideas usually ended up causing more harm than good. 

Still, stupidly, foolishly, he decided to go through with his plan, not figuring out that the outcome might be very, very bad. 

It was a Saturday, a week after his Quidditch win, and Aomine was leading Kise outside of the castle and down to the Quidditch pitch. He still hadn't told him what his plan was, and Kise, the impatient ass that he was, didn't stop prodding him with questions for even a second. 

"Are you taking me out on a picnic?" 

"Do I look like a girl to you?" 

"That's a no then. Are you kidnapping me?" 

"Idiot." 

"Are you taking me to the Forbidden Forest to be eaten by centaurs?" 

"Centaurs don't eat humans." 

"Are you sure?" 

"They have a human head, dumbass." 

"They might be cannibals. Wait." Kise paused, deep in thought. "If a centaur is a cannibal, does it mean he eats humans or other centaurs? Or horses?" 

"Stop asking stupid questions," Aomine said, then stopped when they got to the field. He summoned a broom from the nearby locker room, and Kise frowned. 

"Seriously?" 

"What?" Aomine asked. 

"Did you seriously take me here just to watch you fly?" Kise asked, frown deepening. "I'm not that much of a masochist, Aominecchi." 

"Idiot. Of course not." He threw his leg over the broom, positioning himself on top of it, and looked at Kise. "You're going to fly with me." 

Kise looked shocked. Then he blushed. "Really?" 

Aomine raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Obviously." 

Kise scratched the side of his head, making his hair glint in the sun. "Why are you doing this?" 

Aomine froze, suddenly not too sure of himself or of his idea. He realized he was, again, being too obvious, because the obvious answer to Kise's question, how he was tempted to reply, was  _'because I knew it would make you happy'._  

But that would be a dead giveaway of his true feelings, and he couldn't say that. So he relaxed his muscles. Told himself that any friend would do that. Said, "Don't think about it too much, blondie. You might cause permanent damage to your brain." 

Kise smiled softly at that, fondly, and Aomine's heart flipped in his chest. 

"That was nice of you," Kise said quietly, smile still present. He put his cane on the ground and limped toward Aomine, positioning himself in front of him and holding the broom stick with both hands. 

"Don't get used to it," Aomine replied, and pushed them off the ground. 

The first few minutes were great. Aomine flew them around the field once, twice, three times, going faster with each round they made, getting more daring with each turn they took. 

He dove down, then up again, and heard Kise laugh in delight. 

That made him feel satisfied, and he grinned.  

It was great. 

And then, Kise just had to be his usual horrible self, and he slid back, closer and closer to Aomine, until his back was pressed against Aomine's chest and his ass right in front of Aomine's crotch. 

Aomine's breath got stuck in his throat when Kise wiggled his ass on the broom, as if trying to get more comfortable, and Aomine knew he was doing it on purpose. 

"Jesus fuck," he said, jerking the broom up in his surprise, and unfortunately making Kise's ass press against his dick even more. 

"What's wrong, Aominecchi?" He couldn't see Kise's face, but he just knew that he had a smirk on his face. 

It was agonizing, is what it was. 

"Kise, stop -" he couldn't finish the sentence. Kise shifted again, creating friction against Aomine's dick, and he felt himself get hard, all of his blood running south. 

He exhaled shakely, resisting the urge to rub up against the blond, to god forbidden _moan_ his name, when Kise engulfed his right hand with his own hand and moved it down, down, down until he felt the sensation of Kise's robe against his fingers and then- 

Then something not even remotely resembling of a robe. 

" _Fuck_ , Kise," he said, his voice shaky, and Kise moaned. 

That broke Aomine from his trance. 

"Shit," he said, sliding back and returning his hand to its previous position. "Fuck, shit." The broom, which for the last minute was just flying aimlessly without being directed by either of them, flew down instantly. 

In Aomine's haste to get back to the ground he didn't put any thought into a soft landing, and Kise cursed quietly as his injured leg hit the ground full-force. 

He limped away from the broom, a pained expression on his face, and for a moment Aomine wanted to apologize for making him hurt, but then his mind got back to what just occurred on the broom and he didn't care for Kise's pain anymore. 

"Kise, what the hell?!" he said loudly, feeling anger creeping up. 

Kise looked sheepish. "I thought you'd like it." 

"Jesus," Aomine said, running a hand through his hair. His dick was still hard, embarrassingly so, and his mind still hazy. " _Fuck_. What even made you  _do_  something like that?" 

Kise hesitated. Blushed. Said, "I felt your breath on my neck. And - ah, I didn't even think. God, this is embarrassing." 

Yeah, it fucking was. Aomine was thankful that their robes concealed their erections, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to look at Kise. 

And then Kise stepped toward him. "I'm not sorry that I did it though." 

He took another step forward, and Aomine wanted more than anything to take a step back, to take a thousand steps back. But, for some reason, his body didn't listen to his brain, and he stayed rooted in his spot, his eyes locked with Kise's as the blond took another step towards him. 

He could feel Kise's breath on his face. 

"You liked it, too," Kise said quietly, his eyes falling down to Aomine's lips, then up again to his eyes. "I could feel you. I never... touched anyone else. Felt anyone else's... it was -" 

Kise stopped talking, his eyes half-lidded, and exhaled. His breath hit Aomine's lips, and his whole body shivered. 

His mostly empty mind weakly reminded him about Kagami. 

He knew what Kise was trying to do before he did it, and in the last moment he turned his face away, making Kise's lips land on his cheek. 

He didn't turn his face back in Kise's direction, feeling like this was too risky. Instead, he stayed frozen in his place, his mind still not working properly. 

From the corner of his eye, he could see Kise look up at him through his dark eyelashes, his gaze intense. He seemed to think over something, probably whether to try and kiss him again or just give up and walk away. 

Aomine wished he would walk away. 

But he didn't. Of course he didn't, and Aomine didn't even know why he hoped he might would. Instead of kissing his lips, Kise pressed a light kiss to Aomine's cheekbone, his soft breath hitting Aomine's skin, warming him up farther. 

The next kiss was a bit lower, lips still only brushing over skin. Aomine forgot how to breathe. 

Kise's lips moved to the corner of Aomine's mouth, pressing so softly that he almost thought he imagined the touch, and that's when Aomine felt the last traces of his resolve shutter. 

When Kise's mouth finally landed on top of his, he didn't even think about turning away from it.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a writer's block and it was horrible  
> Writing is hard :(

 

 

**Chapter 5**

 

 

The first thing that registered Aomine's mind was that Kise tasted like honey. 

His tongue swept over Kise's lower lip, feeling the familiar warmth rise in his abdomen, spreading all the way to the tips of his fingers, which were gently touching Kise's jaw. 

He wondered if Kise could feel the heat radiating off of his fingers. 

Kise drew him closer, his arm firmly locked around Aomine's waist, and moaned softly as his tongue delved inside Aomine's mouth, twisting around Aomine's tongue and licking along the roof of his mouth. 

There was a shiver running through Aomine's spine at that, and he could swear every single cell of his body burst into flames, making him feel hot and hazy and shaken.  

He could just as well be electrocuted right now and he wouldn't be able to tell the difference. 

And just before Aomine was about to push Kise against a tree and blow him right there and then, the blond pulled back with a look of pain and a hiss. It took Aomine a few seconds to realize that he was standing on his bad leg, without any support. 

And just like that, whatever spell Aomine was under broke. Reality kicked in, and an unbelievable feeling of shame washed his insides, making him stumble backwards as if burned. 

"Jesus fuck," he said, very eloquent considering how out of it he still was. 

Kise just looked back, his breathing ragged, his cheeks pink and his eyes dark. 

"You have no idea how long I wanted to do it," Kise said, his voice low. "Just walk up to you and kiss you senseless. I thought about it so much."

If Aomine didn't already feel so ashamed of himself and his near nonexistent self control, he'd have most definitely gotten hard just by those few simple words coming out of Kise's mouth. But since he did, those words did nothing more than make him feel even shittier. 

"Don't say that," he said weakly. His hand clenched his hair tightly, somehow helping him feel more grounded. "We shouldn't have done that." 

Kise stayed quiet for a few long moments, then said, "You worried about how Kagami would react?" 

"He's not  _going_  to react." Aomine inhaled. Exhaled. "Because he's not going to find out." 

"Are you sure it's best not to tell him?" Kise sounded uncertain, and Aomine was just so over the whole thing. He felt cold now, the heat of the moment already long gone, and now all that he felt was frustrated and angry. 

"Fuck you, Kise," he said stiffly. "Seriously, fuck you. You were the one who turned this whole thing into this mess." 

Kise frowned. "You kissed me back." 

"But I didn't initiate it! I would have _never_ -" God, this was fucked up. Aomine pulled slightly at his hair, as if it would help him clear his mind somehow. " _Of course_ I kissed you back. _You knew_ I'd kiss you back. You just - you shouldn't have started it in the first place! I told you not to!" 

He couldn't look at Kise anymore, and instead looked around him. At the lake, at the trees, at the grass. Thank fuck no one was around to witness what occurred between them. 

"I -" he heard Kise start, trailing off at the end uncertainly. "I didn't -" Kise cleared his throat, starting again. "I couldn't control myself." 

"You're fucking selfish." Aomine's head hurt like a bitch. "You're so fucking selfish." 

"I know." A deep breath. "I'm sorry. I didn't think it'd shake you up that much." 

"I _told_ you I didn't want you to do it," Aomine said. "I told you to stop." 

"I'm sorry." 

Aomine nodded, but it was too late now. He already betrayed Kagami, and he felt like the shittiest person on the face of the earth. "Don't tell him." 

"Okay," Kise agreed, and his voice was weak, barely above a whisper. 

Aomine nodded again, feeling like he just needed a long nap and then everything would be okay.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Aomine took three long naps, and everything was still shit. 

Kise kept to his promise. He didn't say anything to Kagami, didn't act like anything was different.  

But Aomine knew, and it was eating him inside. 

He could barely even look at Kagami now without feeling like a proper asshole, let alone be in his vicinity for longer than a few seconds. He could see Kagami looking at him in confusion whenever he walked away from him, and could sense his shock when he didn't delve into one of their banters like was expected of him, but he didn't know what else to do other than avoid him for the time being. 

He couldn't pretend to be a good friend to Kagami while knowing that in reality he was a shitty one. 

And the thing was, although he readily accused Kise of causing this whole mess, he knew it wasn't entirely his fault. Because Kise was right, Aomine did kiss him back. No matter if he initiated the kiss or not, he did kiss back. He was just as at fault as Kise, if not even more so; after all, Kise wasn't the one betraying an old friend.  

But Kise did push it a lot. Saying stuff to Aomine about his goddamn _feelings_ and pressing himself against him when they were innocently flying on the broom. He pushed it a lot, and for that, Aomine was angry. 

"What a fuckwit," Aomine mumbled in annoyance, his eyes fixed on Kise who was animatedly talking to Takao and Kuroko at the Slytherin table. The three of them didn't sit with them at the Gryffindor table for a while, which was just fine in Aomine's opinion. Far less trouble. 

"Hmm?" Momoi hummed from her place next to him, raising her eyes to see who he was mumbling about. She sighed when she realized it was Kise. "Don't call him a fuckwit." 

"I'd call him whatever I want to," Aomine replied childishly. "And you weren't supposed to hear that." 

"Then don't say things out loud if you don't want other people to hear." 

"You wouldn't have heard it if you weren't so pathetically hanging on to my every word -" 

"Don't even try to drag me into your idiotic banters, Aomine. I'm not Kagami, I'm not that easily baited." 

Aomine deflated slightly. "Right. Whatever." 

Momoi took a bite of her pasta. "If you miss him so much then don't run away from him whenever he walks into the room." 

"I don't miss him," Aomine denied instantly. "And I don't run away. What are you even on about?" 

"You do run away," Momoi insisted. "And you do miss him, but I know that you're not going to admit it so I'm going to just let it slide. And I also know why you're running away from him." 

Aomine blanched, and hoped it wasn't noticeable. "Fuck this, you don't know anything." 

"You forgot who you're talking to," Momoi said with a roll of her eyes. "I know it's because of Ki-" 

"Goddammit, Momoi,  _shut_ _up_ ," Aomine said angrily, not letting her finish her sentence.  

" _No_ , I'm  _not_  going to shut up," Momoi seethed, and fuck, she actually looked downright scary that Aomine had to take a double look to make sure it actually was Momoi he was talking with. "This thing has been going on for long enough. I thought that the two of you solved it the last time I made you talk to each other, but now it's even worse. So, if you don't want to be truly sorry, then you're going to tell me the whole thing, otherwise -" 

"Don't threaten me." It was all so tiring. Aomine rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, wanting nothing more than to go back to his bed and fall asleep. Maybe then he wouldn't have to have this conversation with Momoi. 

"Then don't be a moron." Momoi's tone gone a bit softer, and she leaned in closer to him. Aomine could smell her perfume, a flowery scent with a citrusy tinge to it. "I'm your friend. I'm not going to judge." 

She looked sincere, and after a few seconds of looking into her eyes, Aomine sighed in defeat.  

"Fuck," he said. "Alright." He got up, his hand running through his hair. "C'mon, not here." 

She followed him to an empty classroom, not saying a word until he closed the door behind them. 

"Well?" She said, pushing herself on top of a table. 

Aomine exhaled slowly, feeling nervous all of a sudden. He had to remind himself that it was just Momoi, who was probably the least judgmental person he knew. 

"You slept with him, didn't you?" Momoi asked, her face still devoid of judgment. 

"No, I didn't!" Aomine denied quickly, surprised that she even came to that conclusion. 

"Really?" Momoi asked, looking uncertain. "I thought for sure... you're attracted to him though, aren't you?" 

Aomine made a face. "Everyone in school is." 

"I didn't ask about everyone else. I asked about you." 

Aomine leaned against the table in front of hers, his foot tapping the floor in a nervous tick. "He's hot." 

"So, if you didn't have sex with him, then what happened?"  

"We kissed." And fuck, how he wished he could kill the flutter in his stomach that erupted whenever he thought about that kiss. He unconsciously pressed the back of his hand against his stomach, the slight pain from the touch making the fluttering sensation go away. 

"Oh," Momoi said. "And you didn't tell Kagami." 

It wasn't a question, and Aomine didn't bother denying it. 

"I don't know what to do about it," Aomine admitted.  

Momoi furrowed her brows. "You should just tell Kagami about it. I mean, it was just a slip, wasn't it? You don't want anything to actually come from it..." 

She trailed off when she noticed the expression on Aomine's face, and her eyebrows shot up in surprise. 

"Oh," she said, her tone soft. "You _like_ him." 

Aomine huffed. "'Course I do. I thought you got it already, are you really that slow?" 

"I thought you just wanted to have sex with him, I had no idea-... I mean, don't get it the wrong way, but in all the years we've known each other you never had any feelings toward anyone, I didn't think-" 

"You didn't think I was capable of wanting someone for more than just a fuck?" He sounded angry and bitter, but dammit, that was kind of painful. 

"I didn't mean it like that, it came out wrong," Momoi said, sliding off the table and moving to lean next to Aomine against his table. "It's just... it's new. I'm not sure how to react." 

Aomine kept tapping his foot on the ground, feeling comforted by the constant rhythm. "I hate it." 

"Feelings can be scary." 

"No, I don't hate my feelings for him. I hate the situation." 

Momoi placed a comforting hand on his wrist. "Yeah, I get that. So, if it wasn't for Kagami..." 

"I would've already fucked him ten different ways," Aomine replied simply. 

"Okay." Momoi stayed quiet for a moment. "And Kise... does he like you back?" 

Aomine snorted. "Seems like it." 

"Wow. Okay. That's... again, don't get it the wrong way, but it's unexpected? I mean, he could literally get anyone he wants, and he chose  _you_. Even after knowing all about your many downfalls, he still lowered his standards enough to want you." 

Aomine huffed out a laugh. "Jesus, Momoi. Ever heard about sugarcoating things?" 

Momoi smiled. "Sorry. But really -" 

"Yeah, yeah. Unexpected. Got it." 

"Well, it is!" Momoi said. "Are you sure he really likes you?" 

Aomine rolled his eyes. "You know, maybe you're right. Him confessing to me, rubbing his ass against my dick and kissing me could mean anything. Maybe he just wants a puppy and I misinterpreted the whole thing." 

Momoi didn't even scoff at his sarcasm; she was too busy looking at him in surprise. " _He_  was coming onto  _you_? I thought it was the other way around!" 

"Why do you think so lowly of me?" Aomine asked in annoyance. "I told you, I'm not about to do anything because of Kagami." 

"That's actually very mature of you," Momoi said, a hint of appreciation in her voice. "You were always the type to act first and think second. It's refreshing to see you acting like a proper adult." 

"It's nice to know that you're impressed, because I feel like a real shitty bastard over this whole thing." 

"Yeah, I get it." She moved her hand to his shoulder, rubbing it lightly in a circular motion. "I still think you need to tell Kagami." 

"Absolutely not," Aomine said stiffly. "He'd kill me." 

"Of course he's not going to kill you, don't be stupid. I don't think he's capable of killing a bug, let alone a human being." 

"I didn't mean it literally," Aomine said with a scowl. "He's gonna hate me though." 

"I don't think he will." Her voice was gentle, and Aomine was so thankful she was so supportive. "He might be disappointed, maybe a bit hurt, but hate you? I doubt it." 

"He's been in love with Kise for almost a year and a half, of course he's gonna hate me." 

"I don't know if he's really in love with him. I think he likes him a lot and pretty infatuated with him, but love... I don't know. Maybe, but I don't think so." She wrapped her arm around his shoulders, giving him a half-hug. "You're not going to stop being friends over this. You're too close to let that come between you, even if you start dating Kise. Kagami will forgive you." 

Aomine sighed. "I just have a bad feeling about it." 

"Don't. It's going to be okay." She smiled slowly then, looking pleased. "So, you and Kise then?" 

"Don't even start." 

"I'm just saying! It's so cute though." 

"You thought Kagami and Kise were adorable before. What with the change of heart?" 

"Seeing Kagami so infatuated was adorable, but seeing you blush over a guy is downright shocking. It's so cute." 

"Shut up, I don't blush," Aomine said while blushing. 

Momoi laughed. "Yeah, right. He's turning you into a romantic." 

"Jesus fuck, just stop already." Aomine rubbed his neck absentmindedly. Said, "I pushed him away." 

"I figured," Momoi said. "What are you going to do about it?" 

"I don't want to tell Kagami." 

"You have to." 

"I have no idea why you think he'd just give me his blessing, but your delusion is sad." 

"Kagami is not as unreasonable as you think he is," Momoi insisted. "He'll come around." 

"Keep telling yourself that," Aomine said tiredly. "But whatever. I'll tell him." 

"That's the right thing to do." She hugged him again, holding him tighter this time. "I'm proud of you. Not only did you put your friendship with Kagami first, you also developed real feelings for another person that go beyond physical attraction. That's quite a feat for you." 

Aomine pushed her away, the sound of her laughter filling the empty classroom. "Shut it, you."

 

**~oOo~**

 

Coming clean to Kagami about the whole thing proved to be much more difficult than Aomine first thought. 

The first reason was that he didn't see him all that much throughout the day. Kagami had started spending more of his free time with Kuroko now, studying with him and talking with him and god knows what else, and didn't spend as much time with Aomine. It probably had something to do with how for the past two weeks Aomine avoided spending any time alone with Kagami, but still. He couldn't help but feel a bit jealous over Kagami and his new 'best friend' or whatever.  

The second reason was that Aomine had to spend most of his free time on homework. Which was just bloody ridiculous if you asked him. It was their sixth year, not their seventh, and there was really no reason for the amount of work their teachers kept throwing at them. So, Aomine found himself unable to spare even a minute for just lazing about like he loved to do, and definitely couldn't spare a minute to have a talk with Kagami. 

And the third reason was that he just really, really didn't want to have this talk with him. Because despite everything that Momoi told him and her countless assurances that he'd forgive him, his gut still twisted with anxiousness and slight fear whenever he thought about this conversation. The doubt was still present, and no assurance by Momoi could erase it. 

Momoi wasn't too impressed by his reasoning though, and just couldn't stop herself from butting in at any opportunity she found. 

"Kagami, I heard that Aomine has something very interesting to talk to you about," she said one day during dinner.  

Aomine almost chocked on his food, and sent her an annoyed look. 

Kagami just looked confused. "Um, okay? What did you want to talk to me about?" 

Fuck, he could just _kill_ Momoi. He couldn't just do it without any preparation. "Ah," he said, trying to buy some time. 

"I think it's private," Momoi said, nudging Aomine with her elbow. "Maybe you should go somewhere more secluded and talk?" 

Seriously, she was just the worst. 

Kagami now had this weird mixture of confusion and amusement in his expression. "Are you going to confess your ever lasting love for me?" 

Aomine faked gagging, and Kuroko smiled. 

"Because you have to know," Kagami continued, amusement still clear on his face, "My heart already belongs to another." 

That wiped the smile off Kuroko's face. 

Aomine cleared his throat. "Right," he said, trying to think of something to get him out of this, when he was suddenly saved by an overjoyed Takao who joined them. 

"Progress! _Progress_!" He shouted happily into Aomine's ear, and if Aomine wasn't so glad about the distraction he would've punched him for it. 

"What are you talking about?" Momoi asked, thankfully focusing her attention on Takao and not Aomine. 

"Shin-chan agreed to go on a date with me!" Takao replied loudly, his face lit with uncontained joy. "I _finally_ wore him down, I knew that one day he'd cave!" 

"Congratulations, Takao-kun," Kuroko said with a smile. "I always had faith in you." 

"I didn't," Aomine said, "Are you sure he actually agreed to go on a date with you?" 

"Positive," Takao answered confidently. "I started the day normally, you know. Just followed Shin-chan around with my binoculars, like any other day." 

"Of course," Kuroko said, as if it was normal behavior. 

"And after about an hour of that, he just turned around, and yelled at me about how infuriating I am and how I can't take no for an answer and that I'm the worst thing to ever happen to him." 

"And you took that as a declaration of love?" Aomine asked, incredulous. 

"Of course not, I'm not a moron," Takao replied dismissively. "But after he realized that this wasn't enough to make me disappear, he decided to change tactics and offered me a deal. I get a date with him, and in return I have to stop following him around with my binoculars." 

"And what would you do after the date is over?" 

"I'd throw the binoculars away and just follow him around the old-fashioned way." 

"That's great, man!" Kagami cheered, giving Takao a high five. 

"You should take the binoculars with you to the date," Momoi said thoughtfully. "Offer to get rid of them right then and there for a snog." 

Takao looked at her with big eyes. "That's- _brilliant_! You reckon he'd agree to that?" 

"Worth a try." 

Takao clapped his hands excitedly. "Oh, I'm so excited, I'm just- hey, Kise! I've got a date with Shin-chan!" 

He took off after that, jumping on Kise who was standing next to the Hufflepuff table and hugging him happily. 

"That just shows you that with great determination and dedication come great results," Kuroko said, looking at an almost crying Takao with fond eyes. 

Aomine snorted. "All it shows me is that obsessive behavior pays off in the end. Not the best life lesson to be had." 

Momoi nodded at that. "I agree with Aomine about that. But look how _happy_ Takao is." 

Takao was now bawling uncontrollably on Kise's shoulder, apparently too emotional to know what to do with himself. 

Only later did it occur to Aomine that the event made them all forget about Aomine having to talk to Kagami.  

He was never more thankful for Takao in his life.

 

**~oOo~**

 

If anyone was to ask Midorima about his date with Takao he'd receive in response a less-than-impressed look and a _"It was worse than I could've ever imagined."_

If anyone was to ask Takao about his date with Midorima, he'd be proudly shown the hickey mark on Takao's neck and hear that  _"It was better than I could've ever imagined!"_

  

**~** **oOo** **~**  

  

It would take another two weeks for Momoi to finally lose her shit with him. 

"Alright, Aomine, that's enough," she said angrily, sitting down next to him and dropping her bag on the table in front of them. 

Aomine, who had his head on the table and was sleeping peacefully, jerked back in surprise at her loud entrance. He blinked up at her, still half asleep. 

"The fuck, Momoi?" he asked when he realized where he was. "Class only starts in five minutes, you didn't have to wake me up." 

"You still haven't talked to Kagami," she said, and pushed his shoulder back. "And sit straight, it's annoying to talk with you with your head on the table." 

Aomine rubbed at his eye in annoyance. "You're such a nuisance." 

"And you're a coward." 

Aomine rolled his eyes. "I hope that's not your best insult, 'cause it's lame as fuck." 

"You've been putting it off for long enough. You've got to tell Kagami everything." She punched him lightly on the shoulder when she noticed he was avoiding her eyes. "He's talking about asking him out, you know." 

"Who, Kagami?" Aomine grumbled, feeling inexplicably angry. He was careful not to let it show on his face. "Good for him." 

"Not _good_ _for him._ What's wrong with you?" She punched him again, with more force this time. 

"Oi! Bloody hell, keep your hands off me. I did not sign up to this abusive relationship." 

She punched him one more time. "You can't let him ask Kise out without him knowing the whole story! That's so unfair for him. Do you realize how humiliated he would feel when Kise won't say yes?" 

"He might say yes." It was painful to even think about the possibility. 

Momoi shook her head. "Of course he's not going to say yes. Don't be ridiculous." 

"He never even gave Kagami a chance. Maybe he'll have a change of heart." 

"Why do you want for Kise and Kagami to be together so much?" Momoi asked incredulously. "That just makes everything worse." 

"It would make everything better," Aomine replied. "Kise would finally leave me alone, Kagami would be happy, and I'd return to fucking whoever I want without caring. It's a win-win-win situation." 

"More like a lose-lose-lose," Momoi said, then thought it over. "Or a lose-win-lose? I don't know, but it's definitely not a win-win-win. You'd be miserable, Kise would be miserable. And Kagami would be miserable because you two would be miserable without him knowing why." 

"I won't be miserable." 

"You already admitted that you like Kise, you can't take it back now and say you don't feel anything." 

Aomine rolled his eyes. "Look, one day I'm not gonna care about Kise too much, right? Whatever it is, 's gonna wear off in the end. So I just have to wait until I don't like Kise anymore, and that's it. Simple." 

Momoi snorted. "Right. Simple." She took a deep breath in, as if talking to Aomine was taking out all of her strength. It probably was. "And you like Kise for how long?" 

Aomine didn't like where this was going. "Almost a year, I think." 

"And did you fight this feeling the entire time and hoped that it'd pass?" 

"...yeah." 

"And did it work?" 

Aomine rolled his eyes and turned to look at the front of the classroom. "Fuck off." 

The ring of the bell sounded, and the students sitting around them all quietened down, looking at Professor McGonagall who was walking to the board with her usual stern expression on her face. 

"Just talk to him," Momoi said quietly to him, looking at the professor. "Today. Stop dragging it on. It's time." 

Aomine shifted a bit in his place. Looked at the table Professor McGonagall turned into a hamster. Said, "Fine." 

 

**~oOo~**

 

The fact that Momoi didn't really trust Aomine to follow through with his promise to talk to Kagami was not surprising in the least. 

"Shit, Momoi, I already told you I'm gonna tell Kagami today. You didn't have to follow me to practice." 

Momoi shot him an unimpressed look. "You promised in the morning. It's already evening. You're dragging it on again." 

"How could I tell him if I didn't see him today at all?" Aomine said, slightly irritated, as they got closer to the locker rooms by the pitch. "It's not my fault." 

"You didn't go out of your way to find him today though," Momoi pointed out. They stopped right outside of the locker rooms and Momoi put a hand on Aomine's shoulder. "I'll stay on the bleachers to make sure you don't run off at the end of practice like I think you might do." 

"It's alarming how little faith you have in me," Aomine grumbled.  

Momoi just let go of his shoulder and walked away, not saying anything else, and with a huff Aomine opened the door and walked into the room. 

Only a handful of his teammates were already there, dressed in their uniforms and talking to each other. Kagami was sitting on a bench, tying up his shoelaces with a look of concentration. 

"Yo," Aomine said as a greeting. He sat down next to Kagami and started taking off his shoes. 

"Hey," Kagami replied, still concentrated on his shoes. 

"Take your time with this," Aomine said, gesturing at Kagami's untied shoe. "It's probably hard for your brain to handle such a complicated task." 

"Yeah, whatever," Kagami replied, still not looking up at him. 

Aomine frowned at him. "What, no comeback? What's got you in such a pissy mood?" 

Kagami straightened his back, his shoelaces tied, and made a face. "Kise said no." 

Aomine's frown deepened. "What?" 

"He. Said. No," Kagami said, and now Aomine could see how miserable he looked. "I asked him out today and he just..." 

"Said no," Aomine finished the sentence for him, and his chest hurt a little. 

Kagami nodded, rubbing his knee absentmindedly. "He was sweet about it, too," Kagami continued, like this fact was even more unfortunate than the actual rejection. "Like it really pained him to say no." 

"Did he.. give you a reason?" Aomine asked carefully. 

Kagami shrugged. "Not really. Just said that we're such good friends and that he doesn't want to ruin things." 

Aomine exhaled the breath he held. "Sucks," he said. "But hey, then, you know. Maybe it's time to forget about him, once and for all."  

Kagami shook his head. "I  _can't_ , he's - I like him so much, it hurts." 

Aomine didn't know what to do or say to that, and just sat there awkwardly, wishing for practice to start already. 

"I'm going to change his mind," Kagami said, his tone decisive, and Aomine thought ' _fuck_ '. 

"And how are you going to do that?" he asked. "You can barely even walk and talk at the same time, this seems too difficult for you." 

"I'm going to be more attentive than before," Kagami said, ignoring the last part Aomine said. "Be around him more. Show him how good I'd be for him. Then he wouldn't be able to say no." 

And the thing was, Aomine knew Kagami would be a better boyfriend than he could ever even dream of being. The fact that Kise didn't see that, or rather didn't care about that, just showed what a moron the guy truly was. 

Aomine cleared his throat. Said, "Alright. Um. I kinda need to talk to you about something." 

Kagami blinked at him.  

Aomine cleared his throat again. Fuck, why did he even say that. There were other people around them, this was so not the time and place for this kind of conversation. Those words just kind of slipped out of him without thought, and now he just wanted to take it back. 

"I mean," he said, not knowing how to continue. 

Kagami furrowed his brows at him. "What do you need to talk about?" 

"Just -" Aomine started, and then by some kind of miracle (not really, but Aomine still liked to think of it as such) the door opened and their captain came in. 

"Alright, ya lazy bastards," the captain, a freckled ginger in his seventh year, said with a booming voice, "Get out on the pitch! You need all the practice you can get. 'm not gonna lose to sodding Slytherin again." 

Aomine exhaled and got up from the seat. "Later," he told Kagami, who shrugged. 

Their practice ended a bit over three hours later, with a final encouraging yell from their fearless leader ("Try not to suck next week like you did tonight!") and Kagami grumbled angrily all the way to the locker rooms.  

"I'm all covered in mud again," he said, taking off his shirt and throwing it on the bench. "I don't understand why he likes to make us land into a pool of mud every damn practice. What joy does it bring him?" 

"He's a twisted fuck," Aomine replied, flicking his wand at his dirty clothes to get them clean again and doing the same with Kagami's. 

"I'd say," Kagami agreed, then said, "I should probably take a shower. I want to meet up with Kise later." 

Aomine looked at him. "Starting with your plan to woo him already?" 

"My plan to woo him started a year and a half ago," Kagami replied. "Now it's time for a new plan. 'Please consider me' plan." 

"You're pathetic," Aomine said, feeling antsy. 

"I'm in love," Kagami replied. "Guess that makes me pathetic." 

Aomine looked sharply at him. "What?" 

"What?" Kagami asked in confusion. 

"You're in love with him?"  

"Oh," Kagami said, looking embarrassed. His cheeks reddened, and Aomine felt a painful twist in his chest. "Yeah. I think so. I mean, I've never been in love before, but... maybe?" 

"Maybe," Aomine repeated, trying to get his mind wrapped around that.  

"I don't know," Kagami continued, seeming to think deeply about it, "Maybe not yet, but I'm heading that way? And now that I told you about it you're going to make fun of me, so that was a mistake. Forget I said anything." 

Aomine shook his head, feeling even more antsy than before, and heard Momoi's voice in his mind. ' _You've got to tell him. It's not fair for Kagami._ ' 

Goddamn Momoi and her goddamn reasoning. 

Kagami quickly got in the shower and Aomine set on a bench, waiting for him to come back out. The rest of their teammates were already gone, with only a couple other kids still sitting on a bench, talking happily to each other.  

When Kagami returned, already dressed and with his wet hair sticking to his forehead, Aomine turned to the two other kids. "Beat it, brats," he told them flatly, making them scramble to their feet and out of the room. 

Kagami frowned at him. "What was that for?" He asked, drying his hair with a white towel. "They're allowed to sit here, you didn't have to be so rude-" 

"I kissed Kise," Aomine blurted out. 

The towel slipped from Kagami's hand and landed on the floor, but Kagami didn't make a move to pick it up again. He just stared at Aomine with a blank look on his face, and Aomine shifted in his place uncomfortably. 

"What?" Kagami asked, his tone as blank as his look. 

Fuck it. "I kissed Kise," Aomine repeated, and his heart was beating so fast he felt like he was about to have a heart attack. 

Kagami blinked at him. Said, "When?"

Aomine scratched his thigh. "About a month ago." 

Kagami's previous blank look turned to shock, then to confusion, then to hurt. "Why?" he asked. 

"Um," Aomine said, not sure how to reply, but Kagami wasn't actually looking for an answer. 

"Why did you do that? You _know_ how I feel for him, and you-" He took in a deep breath, and the previously hurt look on his face turned to anger. "Bet it was hilarious for you, wasn't it?" 

Aomine was so lost. "Hilarious? What-.." 

"To see me all gone for a guy just so you could kiss him first. Was if funny to you? What a joke!" 

"No," Aomine said, the only word that came up in his hazy mind, "No, I-" 

"And to think I always went on and on about him to you, this must've been really just the cherry on the top!" Kagami continued, and his voice was booming in the small room. "You just don't care about anyone, do you?" 

It was like a blow to the stomach. "'course I  _care_ ," Aomine said, sounding slightly desperate, and if it was any other time he'd probably be ashamed at the tone of his voice.  

"No, you don't," Kagami said angrily, a vein in his neck pulsing. "You never did. You don't care about other people's feelings. Always sleeping around and not caring who got hurt along the way. I always knew you were like that, I just never thought you'd do anything like that to me. I thought you had just a _tiny_ shred of decency in you." 

"This isn't fair," Aomine said, shaking his head, "Fuck, I didn't even mean for it to happen!" 

"Ah, you didn't mean for it to happen," Kagami repeated mockingly, "So everything's alright then, if you didn't mean it. Makes me feel _so_ much better about everything." 

"Look, man -" Aomine started, but Kagami cut him off. 

"Save it," he said, his tone dark. "Just save it. I don't care what you want to say." 

"But-" 

"Just shut up," Kagami spat out. "Go and do whatever you want with Kise, since you obviously don't give a damn about me. Make him another one of your successful fuck stories and then dump him like all the others. Do whatever you want, but do it away from me because I just don't give a fuck anymore. I just hope it was worth it." 

And with those words he left, with his towel still on the floor and with Aomine too shell shocked to register what just happened.

 

**~oOo~**

 

If Aomine hoped that maybe a good night sleep would mend things up between them, he was very sadly mistaken.

Aomine woke up alone in the room, all the other guys including Kagami already gone, and cursed loudly when he realized he was already thirty minutes late to his first class of the day. He then cursed again when he remembered what happened yesterday, which also answered the question of why didn't Kagami wake him up this morning. 

And after remembering the conversation, Aomine decided that it was much preferable to just stay in bed today, Potions exam be damned.

Maybe Kagami would come around later today. Maybe he just needed a few more hours to stop being pissed off at Aomine. 

It was a futile wish and Aomine knew it.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Kagami didn't come around that day, nor the day after that or the day after that. 

After a week of complete silence from Kagami, Aomine realized that things were much more dire than he thought they might be.  

The fact that the redhead managed to avoid Aomine despite them being in the same year, sleeping in the same room and practicing in the same team was admirable in a way. Aomine barely even saw him at all that past week, and with every day that passed the huge hole in Aomine's heart grew bigger. 

He never thought he'd feel so lonely without Kagami by his side. 

He still had Momoi, but that was just about it. Himuro and Murasakibara were just as mad at him as Kagami was (which was a given, really, since they were a family and all), and Kuroko also took Kagami's side (which was also a given, since he wanted into his pants or whatever). Takao didn't take any sides and was still nice to Aomine, but he was also spending more and more of his time with Midorima (who he apparently finally wore down), so if Aomine wanted to spend time with Takao, he'd have to also spend time with Midorima, which was just, no. 

And then there was Kise. 

Frankly, Aomine didn't want to see or think about Kise ever again for the rest of his life.  

(And if he was honest with himself, he'd know that all he really wanted was to be around Kise for the rest of his life.) 

Which was why, when Kise came up to him one Saturday afternoon, Aomine was ready to lash out on him. 

He was all alone in the pitch, flying around on his broom and shooting the quaffle through the hoops with more force than usual. Kagami usually played against him on Saturdays. This was probably a thing of the past now. 

Aomine threw the ball again with even more force, making it crash into a small wooden shed of used brooms at the edge of the pitch. 

"Shit," he murmured to himself, flying down to mend the shed. 

That's when he saw Kise. 

"Nice throw," the blond said, as if everything was good between them. As if they were  _friends_. 

Aomine fixed the shed and walked off. 

"Come on, Aomine, I just want to talk," he heard from behind him, and then felt Kise's hand on his wrist. 

He turned around immediately and yanked his wrist away from the blond's grip.  

"I have nothing to talk to you about," he spat out, and Kise had the audacity of  _rolling_ _his_ _eyes_. 

"We have a lot to talk about," Kise insisted, then said, "Momoi told me that you told Kagami." 

Goddamn Momoi. "Fuck off, Kise." 

"She also told me that Kagami's mad and doesn't talk to you anymore," Kise continued as if Aomine didn't say anything. "I'm sorry about that. I really am." 

"Fuck off," Aomine said again. 

"But he'd going to calm down one day," Kise said, as if he was certain that's how things were going to turn out. Like they _had_ to turn out like that. "I'll talk to him, I'll tell him everything, make him know that it's not your fault, and then we-" 

" _We_?" Aomine cut him off, shaking his head. "No, Kise. There's no 'we'." 

"Yes there is." 

"You're delusional," Aomine said, wanting to hurt him. Maybe if he'd move his pain onto someone else then he wouldn't hurt that much. "You think I ever actually cared about you?" 

He wanted this to upset Kise. Needed to make the blond stay away from him, and then maybe without him, everything would just turn back to the way they were before. It was a desperate move, but then again, Aomine was desperate. 

This didn't seem to upset Kise though. He just blinked at Aomine with his blank look and waited for him to say something else. 

And this was even more aggravating than anything else, so he continued vehemently. "You kept coming on to me and it was tempting, I'd admit that, but to think that there's a 'we', an 'us'? Fuck off. There's nothing between us, Kise. You have a pretty face, I'd give you that, but that doesn't mean I _care_." 

Kise breathed in deeply and exhaled, his expression still not changing. "Are you done?" 

Aomine frowned, adrenaline still pulsing through his veins from his little outburst. "What?" 

"Are. You. Done," Kise repeated, slightly exasperated, which made Aomine frown even more. "I'm not stupid, Aomine. I know what you're doing. You think telling me this will make me stay away from you? You've got to try harder than that." 

When Kise's words registered Aomine's brain he sighed in defeat. "Please, Kise," he said quietly, all of the previous adrenaline in his system already gone. 

Kise took a step closer to Aomine, and Aomine took two steps back. "I don't want you near me, Kise," Aomine said. "I'm serious." 

"I told you, I'll talk to Kagami, I'll explain everything," Kise said, a hint of emotion in his voice, but Aomine just shook his head. 

"You already ruined everything," he said. "My friends hate me because of you. I kinda hate myself because of you." 

That finally shattered the blank look on Kise's face, and a pained expression appeared instead. It was much less satisfying than Aomine thought it'd be. 

"Aomine," he started, but Aomine just continued talking. "I wish I never met you," he said, and meant it. 

Kise seemed at a loss for words. His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. "I-" he said, but then closed his mouth once more.  

Aomine just waited, breathing deeply, thinking that this was it. This would make Kise turn away from him and leave him alone. 

For once, he was right.  

"Alright then," Kise finally said, after a few moments of stretched silence between them. He bit his lower lip and looked at the grass. "Alright." 

And he walked away then. If Aomine thought that the sight of his retreating back will make it easier for him to breathe, then he was sadly mistaken. It was just the opposite.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How cruel would it be to just end the fic here? :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for how long it took me to update! Been swamped with work and I finally have a bit time off so I had time to finally finish with this chapter  
> Thanks for everyone who left a comment, kudos or bookmarked the story, it means a lot to me, and I hope you haven't gave up on this story yet!  
> Hope you enjoy this chapter, and have a lovely day! <3

 

 

**chapter 6**

 

"And the Quaffle is being passed to Akiyama, who quickly passes it to Kise! Kise with the Quaffle, dodging a Bludger coming from Hayashi, getting closer to the hoops - c'mon, Gryffindor, block him already! -... Slytherin scores, 130-60." 

The cheers coming from the Slytherin stands were grating on Aomine's nerves. 

"What the fuck, Aomine, stop sucking and score some points!" Gryffindor's captain shouted at him while passing him on his broom.  

Aomine grumbled quietly and gripped the handle of his broom tighter, flying to the other side of the pitch where the Quaffle was being passed back and forth between the Slytherins. 

He hesitated when he realized Kagami was there already, trying to steal the Quaffle from a brown haired Slytherin chaser, and in the end opted to stay where he was, hovering awkwardly in place.  

He felt like a moron. 

Apparently, everyone else thought so too. 

"-the Slytherins are already way ahead of the Gryffindors, not surprising with the zero amount of playing coming from the chasers, who are just watching the game from the sidelines like they're not a part of it. Seriously, wake up you lot, don't let the Slytherins beat you, I might just die of shame - oh, great, ten more points to Slytherin. Fuck you all, this game is the worst I've ever seen -" 

"Inoue, how many times have I told you not to curse and not to show favoritism?" Said the voice of Professor Suzuki, cutting Inoue off. 

"Sorry, professor." 

The unmistakable sound of a  _'_ _ding_ _'_  was suddenly heard, indicating another ten points to Slytherins, and Aomine gritted his teeth in frustration while adjusting himself on his broom. To say he wasn't bringing his a-game would be a complete understatement. Aomine had never played worse in his life.  

It was because he couldn't bring himself to get anywhere near Kagami. He couldn't bring himself to get anywhere near Kise. Which meant, he couldn't bring himself to get anywhere near the Quaffle, since the two other guys were always around it, either holding it or throwing it.  

Aomine just prayed for this game to end as soon as possible. Every minute of him staying still on his broom like a moron was absolute torture. 

"And another ten points to Slytherin," Inoue said with a tired tone, as if watching the game physically exhausted him. "This is getting depressing, guys... and now the seekers caught sight of the snitch. Wonder who's gonna catch it first... oh, surprise surprise. Slytherin has the snitch, Slytherin won 310-60. Great job, guys. Way to make Gryffindor proud." 

Aomine immediately landed on the ground with a thump, feeling restless despite not doing anything physical in the last hour. He could feel the frustration radiating off his teammates, could hear their muttered curses. He saw his captain spit on the ground in anger. He saw Kagami, his hair plastered to his forehead, throwing his broom on the ground with tired eyes. He saw Kise, up in the air with the rest of the Slytherins, celebrating their win. There was no smile on his face and his eyes were blank. 

Aomine turned on his heel and walked off the pitch without looking back.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Aomine and Kagami both went into great length to make sure their paths didn't cross. 

For Aomine's part, he woke up as late as he could and skipped as many classes as he could afford. He spent most of his time on the roof at the top of the east tower, and got back to the dormitories at the small hours of the night, long past curfew. 

For Kagami's part, he woke up as early as possible and was out of the room before the sun came up. Most of his time was spent in the library, having as many study sessions with Kuroko as possible. He made sure to fall asleep before the sun was even completely down. 

Their avoidance plan had worked seamlessly for more than a month. Of course, it had to come to an end at some point. 

  

**~** **oOo** **~**  

  

"This project is going to amount to 30% of your final grade," Professor Yukimura, whose appearance resembled more of a horse than a human, said to the tired students in front of her. Her big front teeth shone as the light hit them, and Aomine couldn't help but stare at them, his head pounding from not enough sleep and too many hours in class. "So I suggest you take it very seriously and avoid procrastinating. Some of you need as many points as you can get if you want to pass this class." She shot a sharp look Aomine's way. He yawned in response. 

"I'll assign you into teams of two. I want to see an equal amount of work from both partners. I will know if one put in more effort than the other, so no slacking off. Each team will be assigned a different potion to make, so no cheating either. Hope we're all clear on that." 

She started pairing the students up with each other, and Momoi turned to look at Aomine. 

"You better not slack off, Aomine," she said seriously, "Your grade is abysmal enough as it is." 

Aomine tore his eyes away from Professor Yukimura. "Have you ever noticed how her eyes bulge out every time she says the letter 's'?"  

Momoi gave him an unimpressed look. "Don't change the subject." 

"C'mon, Momoi," he said with a roll of his eyes, "What do I even need Potions for? How is it even going to help me in becoming a Quidditch player?" 

"So you're saying that just because you want to have a career in sports you should abandon every other lesson that might give you any added knowledge?" 

"That's exactly what I'm saying." 

"You're such a moron," Momoi huffed in annoyance. 

"Don't need to be smart to play -" 

"Kagami and Aomine." 

Aomine blinked at Momoi. He turned his face and blinked at Professor Yukinura, who had already moved on to the next pair. Lastly, he turned his face and blinked at Kagami, who was blinking right back at him, the muscles around his mouth tight. 

This was the first time they held eye contact in more than a month. 

"Fuck me." 

  

**~** **oOo** **~**  

 

It was a lot harder to avoid Kagami when they had to work together.   

They were sitting at  Kagami's  table, right in front of Professor Yukimura (who kept sending sharp looks at  Aomine  every five seconds or so, probably hoping to catch him doing something wrong with the potion), and both were silently working on the potion, with  Kagami  not even glancing once at  Aomine  and  Aomine  trying to appear like he wasn't as uncomfortable as he felt.

In reality, he felt like there were a million ants crawling under his skin. He never felt more uncomfortable next to another human being in his entire life.  

He could sense more than see the looks  Momoi  was sending his way, probably feeling slightly antsy from  Aomine and  Kagami finally being near each other after a month of them barely even being under the same roof together.  Aomine wasn't sure what she thought might happen now that they were forced to be near each other, but her constant worried looks made him want to do something stupid. Like talk to  Kagami , to try and purposely annoy him. There was some sick twisting in his stomach, something that made him want to try and test  Kagami . See how angry he really was with him. See if he could break him.

Mostly he just wanted to stop being ignored by Kagami.   

So, after silently working on their potion for half an hour (A Blemish-Blitzer potion, which Aomine was tempted to offer to the acne-riddled Mori after completing it), Aomine noticed Kagami was looking at his side of the table. More specifically, at the jar of beetle eyes on his side of the table, too far away for Kagami to be able to reach it by himself.

Aomine looked at the jar. Looked at Kagami, who was still looking at the jar, aware of Aomine's eyes on him but ignoring it.  

After a minute of this, he sighed. "Well?" He said to Aomine, who raised an eyebrow at him.  

"Well what?" He asked, feeling excitement over the fact that Kagami was finally addressing him and not ignoring him completely, no matter how annoyed he looked by doing so.  

"Are you going to give me the beetle eyes?"   

Aomine made a face as if he was thinking about it, then shrugged. "I'm not planning on it, no."  

Kagami made an angry sound. "You don't even need to use it. Just give me the jar and stop being such a bastard."  

"You know, having some manners and using the word 'please' will get you a long way," Aomine said, feeling satisfied by Kagami's obvious anger. "Didn't your mom teach you any of that?"  

It seemed like it got harder and harder for Kagami to keep his anger in check. His hands shook slightly. Aomine just continued looking at him with a smirk, knowing how infuriating it was for Kagami.  

"Aomine," Kagami said slowly, "Don't test me."  

"I'll do whatever I want," Aomine answered challengingly. The need he felt to see Kagami lose control was almost too much for him to handle.  

He saw  Kagami  balling up his fists under the table, and the idea of  Kagami  punching him thrilled him. None of the emotions he had inside of him in the last few months made sense to him, and he felt like he was going to explode – getting into a fight, something he knew, something he understood, felt like the exact outlet he needed for his feelings.

And just when he was ready for Kagami to do something, anything, Professor Yukimura appeared in front of their table, a look of disapproval on her long face. 

Aomine felt himself deflate completely at the sight of her, all of the excitement leaving him at once, and the feeling of nothingness filled his insides. 

"I don't see you working," the Professor said, her eyes bulging out slightly upon saying the word ' _see_ '. "Do I need to remind you that this potion is going to be 30% of your final grade?" 

"No Professor," Kagami said immediately, his posture still tense and his fists still balled up. 

"No," Aomine said when her eyes moved to him, and yawned deeply, feeling drained. 

She gave him an unimpressed look. "Do your work, Aomine," she advised him stiffly, then turned to the pair sitting behind them, leaving Kagami and Aomine alone again. 

Aomine put the jar in front of Kagami and neither of them said anything else for the remainder of the class.

 

**~oOo~**

 

" - really, this was all so ridiculous, she actually wanted me to apologize to her -  _me!_  - after she snogged Yamaguchi a week after we broke up. She actually said that I ruined him for her, and I mean, it's not  _my_  fault that she looks like a llama, that's just an unfortunate gene pool she got from her parents, but it's still not my fault that he didn't enjoy snogging her. And she snogged him a week after we broke up!" Momoi repeated, looking absolutely outraged by this. "Can you  _believe_  her nerve?"  

Aomine burped instead of replying with words. 

Momoi shot him a disgusted look. "Control your gas." 

"Don't want to," he replied. 

"Did you even listen to a thing I said?" 

"The llama chick is after your ex and is blaming you for a failed snog," Aomine summed up with a bored tone. "And honestly, why do you even care? You were the one who broke up with him, he shouldn't matter anymore." 

"We've been together for a year," Momoi said. "It's just annoying." 

"Just stop thinking about it and you wouldn't be annoyed." 

Momoi made a face and stretched her legs out in front of her. They were both sitting on top of the east tower, Aomine lying on his back while Momoi preferring to sit ("I'd like to have as little contact with the floor as possible," she said while looking down at the pieces of gum littering the place, "Looks filthy"). This was probably Aomine's favorite part of the castle in this past month - it was secluded and far away from everyone. This was exactly what Aomine needed - not to think about Kise, not to think about Kagami, not to think about anything. 

It almost felt like all of his problems disappeared just because he wasn't near the cause of them. 

And of course, that's when Momoi decided to talk about everything Aomine didn't want to talk about. Momoi was good at being annoying like that. "How's working with Kagami going?" 

Aomine scowled at the sky. They worked together for the last week with no altercation between them. It was disappointing in a way. "It's fucking going incredible. Makes me feel elated just thinking about it." 

Aomine couldn't see Momoi's face from where he was, which was why it took him by surprise when he heard her say, "I'm sorry." 

Aomine turned his face to look at her. She looked guilty for some reason, and Aomine frowned. "What are you sorry for?" 

"It's just," she said, then stopped, thinking over the words in her head. Aomine waited patiently for her to continue. "I just feel slightly at fault, you know?" 

Aomine looked at her in confusion. "Why?" 

"I pushed you so much to talk to Kagami, and I thought for sure that he would hear you out, listen to what you had to say... I didn't think it would turn out like it did. And it makes me feel responsible," she admitted, looking regretful. "I now get why you didn't want to talk to him about it. It just tore us all apart." 

"Momoi, just shut up," Aomine advised her, rolling his eyes. "Stop taking responsibility for things that aren't related to you." 

"But I did -" 

"You didn't cause any of it. He would've found out sooner or later, and it's got nothing to do with you." 

"I still feel bad," she said. 

"Then stop feeling bad." 

"I can't just  _stop_  feeling bad, it doesn't work like that." 

"Sure you can. It works great for me." 

"Oh, please," Momoi said with a roll of her eyes. "You look so miserable all of the time. Do you really think it's not noticeable?" 

"Piss off Momoi." 

Momoi brushed off a piece of dirt that had clung to her cloak with a look of disgust, then said, "I'm sure Kise notices it too." 

"Don't say that name around me," Aomine said stiffly. 

"What name?  _Kise_?" Momoi said, emphasizing the word, and Aomine pushed her in annoyance. "Oh,  _come on_  Aomine, don't be such a child. It's just a name." 

"It's the name of the root of everything's wrong with my life." 

Momoi frowned at him. "Don't say that." 

"Why not? It's the truth," Aomine insisted. 

"You're an asshole," Momoi said in disapproval. "It's not Kise's fault." 

"I told you not to say that name around me." 

" _Seriously_?" Momoi said in exasperation. "Kise. Kise Kise Kise Kise  _Kise_!" 

Aomine pushed her more forcefully this time, a glint of anger in his eyes. "Stop it," he said angrily. "This is my sacred place. I don't want to hear anything about him here." 

"You're just putting the blame on him so you wouldn't have to put it on yourself," Momoi said in annoyance. "It's not right for him. He's so upset over the whole thing and you don't even care." 

Aomine closed his eyes and didn't say anything in response. 

The truth was, he did care. More than he let on. Because despite everything he said - to Momoi, to Kise himself - he didn't think it was all Kise's fault. It was a bit of everyone's fault, really - Kise's fault for pushing so hard. Kagami's fault for not listening to Aomine's explanation. Most importantly, it was Aomine's fault for handling it the way he did. For not telling Kagami sooner, for not rejecting Kise more forcefully. 

It was a bit of everyone's fault. It was just easier to put all the blame on Kise and leave it at that. 

"You're an ass," he heard Momoi huff in annoyance. He felt her rise up from the ground next to him and heard her walking away from him, closing the door behind her with a loud ' _thump_ '.  

He didn't have the power to deal with another one of his friends feeling disappointed of him. 

 

**~oOo~**

 

It was hard for Aomine not to notice Kise whenever he was in his vicinity.

Really, it would be almost impossible to anyone. Kise garnered attention wherever he went, whether he wanted to or not. He was like a magnet in a way, making everyone's eyes land on him by just entering the room quietly.

So even if Aomine tried to avoid him the most, he still noticed him.

So he saw him at lunch sometimes, sitting with Takao. Sometimes sitting with the other slytherins. A couple of times Aomine saw him sitting with Kuroko, though lately Kuroko spent most of his lunches sitting with Kagami at the Gryffindor's table.

The thing was, Kise was never just by himself. He was always surrounded by people, always smiling, always joking around.

It just looked so completely fake that Aomine felt sick to his stomach just looking at him.

Kise was a good actor. A brilliant actor. But Aomine knew.

Kise wasn't happy. 

It made him want to punch himself, and made him think about his last conversation with Kise. How hard he was on him, how cruel. And he didn't completely regret it, because it achieved Aomine's goal - Kise didn't try anything with him anymore. Didn't smile at him or talked to him. Aomine caught him looking at him a few times, but it was always with blank, expressionless eyes, and he always turned to look away the second Aomine returned the look.

So in a way, he didn't regret saying it.

But seeing Kise as a shadow of his once brilliant self was like getting punched in the guts.

Kise deserved better than him, that was for sure. Aomine just hoped he would move on soon enough, 'cause he just couldn't bear seeing him like that for much longer.

 

**~oOo~**

 

It's been two weeks since Aomine and Kagami started working together on their potion, and things were not looking great.

Their potion, especially, didn't look great.

"It's too pink," Aomine muttered, looking at the horrid concoctionstirring in Kagami's cauldron.

Kagami acted as if he didn't hear him and kept stirring the potion, three times clockwise, one time in the opposite direction.

"It shouldn't be this fucking pink," Aomine said louder, looking directly at Kagami and waiting for him to react.

Kagami simply sighed in irritation and kept on stirring. "It's fine."

"Did the fumes damageyour eyesight?" Aomine asked with furrowed eyes, looking at the pink fumes coming off the potion directly at Kagami's head. "It's pinker than Momoi's hair."

Kagami just rolled his eyes and didn't say anything else, which was starting to grate on Aomine's nerves.

"Stop being a fucking twat. Are you really going to jeopardizeyour own grade just because you don't want to admit that I might be right?"

Kagami turned to look at him. There were bids of sweat rolling down his face from being around the hot potion for so long. "Don't act like you know anything about potions."

"I managed to get a good enough grade to continue this year," Aomine reminded him, feeling slightly offended. He wasn't that stupid.

"Yeah,  _barely_ , and all thanks to Momoi." Kagami returned to the potion, not dignifying Aomine with another look. "Just shut up and let me work. Not like you're going to be able to contribute anything anyway."

"What is that supposed to mean?" 

"You're too stupid," came Kagami's simple response, and Aomine was fuming.

He took a few deep breaths. Told himself he didn't care what Kagami thought of him. Said out loud to Kagami, "Whatever," and continued doing nothing, since this apparently was all he was good for.

Not a minute later and Professor Yukimura appeared in front of them, looking at the potion and sniffing the air.

"Not bad," she said, looking at Kagami with a small smile and not sparing Aomine a glance. "But it appears as though you forgot to add the Fairy Wings. See how pink the potion is? It's supposed to be a tad less vibrant."

Aomine shot Kagami a smug look. Kagami furrowed his brows and looked down at the potion, then back at the Professor. He seemed annoyed, which made Aomine feel incredibly satisfied.

"Well," Aomine said after the Professor left to check on the other students, "How does it feel to be so wrong all the time?"

Kagami huffed and added some Fairy Wings to the potion, which immediately turned into a soft pink in color.

Kagami was in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Momoi and Aomine were both sitting on the roof of the east tower, something that became a usual thing for them in the last two months or so, when Momoi said conversationally, "Kagami and Kuroko sure spend a lot of time together."

Aomine raised an eyebrow at her, not sure how to respond to that. He knew there was a reason for Momoi to bring it up; he just wasn't sure what she wanted to know.

"Who cares?" he said eventually, and was rewarded with an eyeroll from Momoi.

"Kuroko spends more time with Kagami than he does with Kise," she said, "And they've been friends since their first year here. Kagami and Kuroko have only been friends for a year or so. So I just don't understand why he would choose Kagami over Kise."

"Maybe he's just a crappy friend," Aomine suggested.

"No," Momoi said, "But... I mean, it kinda makes sense? Does Kuroko like Kagami?"

Aomine closed his eyes and found a more comfortable position on the ground. "You bore me out of my mind, did you know that?"

"They seem like such an odd couple though," Momoi continued, not paying Aomine any mind, "Kuroko is so intellectual, very sweet, and Kagami is just...  _Kagami_ , you know? It doesn't make sense, but then it kind of does, because opposites attract and all that. What do you think?"

Aomine let out a huge snore.

Momoi punched him in the shoulder. "Seriously, Aomine! What do you think?"

Aomine rubbed his shoulder. "I think that I'd much rather be sleeping than listen to you yapping on and on about Kagami and Kuroko."

"Would you rather me talking about Kise?"

Aomine sighed. "You're so annoying."

"Yet you still love me," she said cheerfully. "So, what do you think? Is there something going on there?"

"How should I know?" Aomine said gruffly, and his tone sounded a bit too strained even to his own ears.

Momoi, of course, noticed it too. "Do you know something?" she asked excitedly.

"I don't know shit," he said insistently, but Momoi wasn't having it.

"Come on, Aomine! I would've told you if I knew something."

"Like I'd want to know."

"Aomine?"

"Hmm?"

"Tell. Me."

"God, you're such a gossip," Aomine grumbled. "Fine. Yeah, Kuroko wants Kagami. For some reason."

"He told you that?" Momoi asked incredulously.

"He and he-who-must-not-be-named were talking about it. I was just unfortunatelythere."

"Kise knows?" she asked in interest. "And does Kagami want him back? Does he know?"

"Stop asking me about it," Aomine said in annoyance. "In case you haven't realized, Kagami and I aren't on speaking terms at the moment. If you're so curious go ask him yourself, I don't want to know or hear anything about it."

"I can't talk to Kagami about it," Momoi said, "If he doesn't know then I'm not going to be the one to tell him. And anyway, I haven't spoken to him much lately either."

"Why not?" 

"Because I'm with you," Momoi replied simply.

"You can be friends with Kagami too, you know," Aomine said in confusion, "It's not like you have to choose between us. I don't care."

"But Kagami has Kuroko and Himuro, and you -"

"And I'm  _what_? All alone?" Aomine said. "Don't pity me, Momoi, or I'll throw you off this tower."

"I'm not with you because of pity," Momoi said, then seemed to think about it. "Well, I'm not with you  _just_  because of pity."

"Piss off already."

"It just doesn't feel right when you're not there," Momoi said with a shrug. "And when I sit with Kagami I have to sit with Kuroko too, and most often than not it feels like I'm imposing. So."

"So you'd rather spend time with me on a stinking rooftop than to cockblock Kagami?" Aomine said. "I'm flattered."

Momoi kicked his leg gently. "Don't be."

They stayed quiet for a while, Momoi looking at the distance with her hair flowing with the wind and Aomine looking at her with a soft expression on his face.

Momoi, bless her, was the only one who stuck with him.

"Momoi?" Aomine said, and she turned to give him a questioning look.

"What?" she asked. The wind caused a few strands of her hair to tangle up in front of her face, but she left them like that and kept looking at Aomine.

"Thank you," he said, and hoped that she wouldn't ask him what for. He hated talking about feelings.

But Momoi just smiled, and Aomine knew she knew what exactly he was thanking her for.  _Thanks for not leaving like everyone else_.

"You're welcome," she said, and Aomine felt lighter in that moment than he did in that past two months.

**~oOo~**

 

Things have finally come to an explosion between Aomine and Kagami on their last class working on their project.

The potion had turned out alright enough in Aomine's humble opinion. Still not the best of color, but it'll probably do what it's supposed to, so it didn't really matter to him. He'll get his E or A or whatever and be done with it.

But Kagami wasn't having it. "It should be a little bit pinker," he mumbled, adding another beetle eye into the potion and not making any difference in the color.

" _Now_  you care about the color?" Aomine said, not forgetting their last argument.

Kagami just furrowed his brows and added another beetle eye into the mix.

"Great work," Aomine said sarcastically, looking at the mixture in their cauldron. "You really made a difference. You should be a potions master with your skill."

Kagami furrowed his brows even more, if that was possible. "Fuck off," he said, and it wasn't like how he used to reply to Aomine in a banter. This was full of anger and bitterness and it was just not right.

So Aomine pushed it farther. "How 'bout you add another one of those eyes, since it's just  _so_  successful."

Aomine could see Kagami's chest expend and deflate, like he just took a deep, calming breath. He put aside the jar of eyes and grabbed the little brown bag next to him, which was filled with roots of the Flitterbloom plant.

"Another  _superb_  idea," Aomine said after Kagami dropped two roots into their potion, making it slightly dimmer than it previously was while it was actually supposed to be brighter in color. "I'm just  _amazed_  by how many ideas you're able to pull out of your ass."

Kagami took another deep breath, and then another one. Aomine could almost see the battle happening inside of him - wanting to talk back to Aomine. Not wanting to entertain him with a fight, when it was so clear that it was exactly what Aomine wanted.

So Aomine kept talking. "What's wrong? Your ass all out of great ideas? I'd think someone fucked them all out of you," Aomine said, a smirk appearing on his face, "But then again, who would even want to fuck you in the first place?"

And this was what finally broke Kagami.

With an angry roar and shaking hands, Kagami had managed to grab their cauldronand spill almost half of its content on Aomine, who was completely caught off guard by that action that he didn't move away in time. The potion clung to his cloakand he could practically feel it entering his body through his skin, causing his hands, neck and the right side of his face to break into painful blisters.

" _Kagami Taiga!_ " he heard the Professor yelp in panic, rushing to them. There was a buzzing in Aomine's ears, and his head pounded, part from the shooting pain in his face and hands, part from the need to fight. "What have you  _done_! This is completely unacceptable!" Professor Yukimura continued talking, and Aomine distantly felt her hand on his shoulder, either trying to comfort him or trying to pull him away from the scene, probably get him into the infirmary so he can  receivesome much-needed medical attention.

But he couldn't leave it like that. He just couldn't.

So he reached for the closest cauldronhe could find, which belonged to the pair sitting behind them. Ignoring the horrid pain in his hands, he grabbed the cauldronand threw the potion inside of it in Kagami's direction.

There was a satisfying angry shout coming from Professor Yukimura, and an even more satisfying pained scream coming from Kagami. Aomine tried to remember what potion the pair behind him were working on, but it was pretty apparent when Kagami's torso and legs, which suffered the worst of the impact, started to shrink.

A Shrinking Solution.

And although his whole body was in pain, Aomine couldn't stop the laughter bubbling up inside of him at the sight of Kagami, trying to balance his regular sized head and arms on a torso and legs that seemed to belong to a ten-year-old kid.

"This is outrageous!" he heard the Professor say, and he thought he heard Momoi say, " _Goddammit_ , Aomine!", but he couldn't care less. 

And then, mid-laughter, he felt another potion hit him, and upon opening his eyes he realized Kagami had managed to grab another cauldronwhile leaning against their table for support. For a second he just thought how stupid the Professor and the rest of the students were, that they just kept their potions unguarded around them while they were busy throwing them at each other.

Then the pain came, and no thought entered his brain again.

 

**~oOo~**

 

Aomine regretted waking up the second he did.

Being a Quidditch player, Aomine had suffered his fair share of injuries. But  _this_. The pain he was feeling was absolutely  excruciating. 

He made a pathetic noise, something between a pained moan and a whimper, and opened his eyes into small slits. The light of the room blinded him for a few seconds, and when he got used to it he realized he was lying on a bed in the infirmary.

It was silent in there. Aside from the distant sound of breathing, nothing else was making a sound.

It wasn't the sound of his breathing though.

The moment Aomine realized that, he heard a familiar voice say, "So. You're alive."

The voice was coming from the bed opposite his. Aomine tried to lift his head to take a look at them, but the pain in his arm prevented him from even moving a muscle.

So he stayed where he was. Said, "Sorry to disappoint."

Kagami didn't say anything else. Maybe he didn't know what else to say, maybe he didn't want to keep talking to Aomine anymore. Aomine was kind of glad he didn't say anything else though; he was in too much pain to even think properly. He just wanted to return to sleep and hopefully wake up to a healthy body and a working arm.

Sleep was a lot harder to fall into when you were in pain though, Aomine realized bitterly after an hour of lying restlessly in his bed. And there was one pressing question in his mind that he just had to ask, so finally he said out loud, "The fuck happened to my arm?"

His voice sounded so embarrassinglyhoarse, and Aomine cleared it in annoyance.

For a long moment Kagami didn't reply. Aomine thought that he might've fallen into sleep already. But then he said, "It was a Skele-Grow."

Aomine exhaled. "Well, fuck."

Another long silence. Then, "I'm not going to apologize, if that's what you think."

"Whatever," Aomine replied.

"I mean it," Kagami continued.

"I don't give a damn."

"You deformed my chest and legs, so you're supposed to apologize to  _me_."

Aomine snorted, feeling pleased. "Fuck, I forgot. Are you cured yet, or are you still a freak?" 

"That's not an apology."

"Like I'm gonna apologize for something I'm proud of doing." This time, Aomine ignored the shooting pain in his arm and stretched up so he could have a better look at Kagami in the bed in front of him. The sight he saw was enough to make up for it, and he burst out into a hoarse laughter. 

"This is  _not_  funny!" Kagami said, but there was the beginning of a smile on his face. 

" _Please_  tell me someone snapped a picture of you," Aomine said, and there were actual tears in his eyes. "I'd want to have this picture etched into my brain so I could look at it forever."

"I reckon everyone was too horrified to snap a picture," Kagami said, and his tone was actually light, at the verge of laughter. Aomine was ashamed to admit it made him feel lighter himself. "Two students fainted when they saw me on my way to the infirmary."

"Probably less to do with your body and more to do with your face."

"Very funny," Kagami smiled. 

"Your ugliness is no joking matter," Aomine said in his most serious tone.

"Twat."

"Misshapen freak."

"Traitorous bastard."

And just like that, the air between them became stiff again. The words brought them both a reminder of what Aomine did, and Kagami's grin turned into a hard press of his lips.

It was like there was a bubble inside of Aomine that deflated completely after hearing those words, and he sunk back into his pillow in defeat. 

Maybe he should say something to Kagami. Maybe he should try and explain himself now, when they both had to stay here. When Kagami couldn't run away.

He had no idea how to begin though, and the silence between them stretched out for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Thankfully, Madam Pomfrey chose exactly that moment to make an appearance.

"Oh good, you're awake," she said to Aomine and rushed to his bed. She touched his arm gently, and tutted when he grimaced in pain. 

"Really, what were you thinking," she said in disapproval Kagami's way while handing Aomine a cup with some kind of dark solution in it. "Pouring a Skele-Grow on a healthy arm, how could you be so  _stupid_. You've been growing at least five additional bones in your arm," she said, directing the last bit at Aomine, who was looking at the cup in his hand with a frown. The smell was absolutely horrid. "This will help remove them. It's not going to be  pleasant," she warned, "But it's far better than leaving it as it is. So drink up."

Not going to be pleasant. That was the fucking understatement of the century. The second the cup left his mouth he felt as if his arm was burnt, chopped up and crushed, all at the same time.

He felt like he was going to pass out from the pain.

Luckily, Madam Pomfrey immediately grabbed his face and poured another potion down his throat. The potion immediately affected Aomine, making him drowsy in the best of ways, and it only took him another second before he lost consciousness.

When he woke up, Madam Pomfrey was nowhere in sight, and while his arm was still in pain, it was much better than before. He could even move his fingers without wanting to shoot himself, which was a great thing in his opinion.

A rustling of blankets from the bed opposite his informed him that Kagami was still there. "You awake?" he heard him say, and Aomine nodded.

"Yeah," he said out loud when he realized Kagami probably couldn't see his nod.

"Is it painful?" Kagami's tone of voice was careful, even a bit remorseful. 

"It's better," Aomine answered truthfully. "Was worse before."

A long silence. Then, "I'm sorry."

Aomine shook his head. "S'alright," he said, "I deserved it, probably."

"Yeah," Kagami replied, and Aomine huffed out a laugh. "Still," Kagami continued, sounding regretful, "I wouldn't have thrown it at you if I knew that it'd hurt so much. I just didn't really think at the time."

"Well, I pushed you to do it," Aomine said. "I mean, I didn't think you'd throw a potion at me. I thought you'd hex me, maybe punch me in the face. The potion-throwing was a bit of a surprise."

"I told you, I didn't really think at the moment," Kagami repeated.

"Yeah," Aomine said and breathed deeply. Braced himself for what he was about to say next. Then said, "I'm sorry too."

"It's alright, my torso is almost its usual size again. Just my legs have a bit more growing to do. At least it's all pain-free."

"I'm not only sorry about that," Aomine clarified, and heard Kagami's exhale.

"Oh," was all he said.

Aomine thought about not saying anything else, but fuck it. He already started speaking. Best to just say it all now and be done with it.

"I didn't mean for any of that to happen," he said, and his heart was beating in his chest so hard he forgot all about the pain in his arm. "I didn't mean to let it get this far, and I didn't mean to fall for him. So, I'm sorry."

He chanced a look at Kagami. His frown was clear even from a distance, and Aomine's heart sank.

Kagami opened his mouth to say something, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the sound of the infirmary's door opening loudly.

"You absolute  _morons_!"

"Oi, Momoi, stop shouting," Kagami grumbled and made a pained face. 

"What were you even  _thinking_!" she continued, not lowering her voice down. "This was just so  _stupid_ , god, why didn't you just fight like normal wizards and used your  _wands_?"

"We thought it would be more fun to maim each other using potions," Aomine muttered, and Momoi shot him a disapproving look while Kuroko made his way to Kagami's bed.

Kuroko didn't shout like Momoi was doing. He didn't even look that fazed by any of that. He just sat down at Kagami's bedside and looked at him for a moment.

Then he raised his fist and started hitting Kagami repeatedly with as much force as he could gather.

"Ouch!" Kagami said loudly, trying to move away from Kuroko without much success, since he was bound to the bed and his legs still couldn't carryall of his weight. "Stop that, what are you doing?"

Kuroko didn't even dignify that with a verbal answer, and instead just kept on hitting Kagami until he grew tired.

Momoi sat down next to Aomine, and for a moment Aomine thought she might decide to punch him too. Thankfully, Momoi was a bit more compassionate, and just touched his arm lightly. 

"Is it painful?" she asked while still touching it.

"Not really," Aomine replied. "But thanks for touching it first and making sure that it's not painful after."

"Sorry," she said, but didn't sound too sorry about it.

"Yeah, right."

"So you're better?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Thank god," she said, "Because Ki-" she stopped talking and made an unsure face. Aomine was looking at her with a blank expression, but his insides were reeling. The silence coming from Kagami's side of the room was enough for him to realize that he was also listening to their conversation.

Momoi chanced a look at Kagami, then continued, "He was asking after you. Looked proper freaked out, too."

"Who cares," Aomine grumbled quietly. 

"Aomine," Momoi said in a warning tone, "Don't be like that. He has a right to be scared for you, no matter how much of an ass you are."

Aomine shrugged his shoulders, and there was a distant pang of pain in his arm. "Whatever," he said, but he felt a bit warmer at the realization that Kise was worried about him, even after everything.

Momoi nodded her head, as if she knew that's how he'd respond (she probably did), and then said, "On another note, I have something for you that's probably going to make you love me forever."

Aomine's look of question turned into a look of pure happiness as he looked at what Momoi handed to him.

"Oh  _god_ ," he heard Kagami say in resignation, "When did you take a picture of me?"

"Just before Professor Satou carried you out of class," Momoi said proudly.

"Momoi," Aomine said slowly, not able to tear his eyes away from the picture of a deformed Kagami, "Marry me."

"Ew, no," she replied, and sounded extremely pleased. 

 

**~oOo~**

 

Momoi and Kuroko were sitting with them for another hour before Madam Pomfrey showed up and sent them away with the parting words, "Stop disturbing those young boys, they need to  _rest_!" 

And so, once again Aomine and Kagami were alone. It was still tense between them - even with Kuroko and Momoi there, Aomine and Kagami didn't talk to each other and just talked to the other two. 

Now that they didn't have them here anymore, the silence seemed even worse than before.

In the end, it was Kagami who broke the silence with a coughand a, "So... you didn't mean to fall for him?"

Aomine felt his insides freeze. "Um."

"That's what you said," Kagami reminded him. As if Aomine needed a reminder of what he said. 

"So what?" he said, and hoped that it sounded uncaring. ( _It didn't_ ).

"I didn't know that," Kagami said, and his tone was a bit softer than before. "You didn't tell me."

"Didn't give me much of a chance to say anything." It sounded bitter, and Kagami sighed.

"Guess I didn't," he admitted, and Aomine felt something loosen in his chest. Felt hopeful. Felt like Kagami was going to forgive him. "I just felt like a moron, y'know?" he said with a shrug. "Here I was, chasing after Kise for well over a year, and you just... claimed him first, I guess."

"I didn't want to," Aomine said.

"Yeah you did," Kagami said simply, and shook his head when Aomine was about to protest more firmly. "It's fine. I get it. You love Kise. It's just - 's a bit hard for me to wrap my head around it, to be honest. I mean -  _you_ , in love? I didn't think I'd live to see the day."

"A bit too dramatic, don't ya think?" 

"Not dramatic enough, actually," Kagami said. "I thought you just wanted to fuck him."

"I wish," Aomine said with a sigh, "I hate the fact that I actually - that I  _want_  him. For more than that. I didn't mean to, y'know?"

"So you've said," Kagami said, and there was a bit of amusement in his voice which was sounded very promising to Aomine.

"No, I know," Aomine said, "I just need you to understand."

Kagami hummed. "Okay," he said. "It feels like crap to hear it," he admitted, and Aomine could see how he was masking the pain on his face with an expression of indifference. Kagami was never good at hiding his emotions. This was the exact opposite of Kise, who was so good at controlling his emotions you didn't know what was real and what wasn't.

"Sorry," Aomine said, not knowing what else to say to that.

Kagami just shrugged. "S'fine, I suppose. I just... need a bit more time to really let that sink in, I guess."

Aomine nodded his head and stretched his limbs in the bed. He thought that they were finished with the conversation until Kagami said, "So, what now?"

Aomine looked at him in question. "What do you mean, 'what now'?"

"You gonna ask Kise out?" he tried to make it sound causal, Aomine could tell, but he still heard an undertone of bitterness in it.

He couldn't hurt Kagami again. "Nah," he said, "He wouldn't want me anyway."

"Why not?" Kagami asked in confusion. "Kuroko told me that Kise wants you, so. I mean, what's the problem?"

Kuroko and his big mouth. Aomine wondered how he would've felt if Aomine told Kagami that Kuroko likes him. "I basically told him to fuck off. And other shit. I was pretty mean about it, too."

"Why?"

Aomine shrugged, not wanting to admit it was because Kagami hated him. 

But Kagami wasn't that thick, sadly. 

"It was because of me?" he asked, and Aomine just shrugged again, not really wanting to say anything.

Kagami shook his head with a frown. "Aomine..." he said, seemingly deep in thought. Then he shook his head again. Said, "I'm sorry. I didn't give you a chance to explain."

"It's fine," Aomine said instantly, but Kagami continued.

"I was just so  _mad_ ," he said, "And hurt. And I didn't want to listen to anyone. Not you, not Kuroko, not Momoi. I was even pissy at Kise when he tried to explain -"

"Kise talked to you?" Aomine said, and it's been so long since he said that name out loud that it almost felt foreign in his mouth.

Kagami nodded. "He didn't manage to say much though, I just cut him off and started saying some shitty stuff - god, I was an asshole to him. I just thought he was playing with me, and - shit, he probably hates me."

"You probably didn't say anything worse than what I said."

"I called him a two-timing whore," Kagami said in shame, and Aomine made a face.

"Fuck, man. That's shitty."

Kagami covered his face with both of his hands in regret. "I felt awful about it as I was saying it," he said. "Like, I knew it was disgusting of me to tell him that, and completely uncalled for, but I was just so angry that he was trying to justify you and I felt like he was disregarding my feelings for him, and it just... I couldn't even  _control_  myself. I'm such a bad person."

Aomine felt sick at seeing Kagami so ashamed of himself. "I told him that I don't care about him and that he was nothing more than a pretty face. And I told him that I wish I'd never met him."

Kagami lowered his hands from his face. "We really fucked up with him."

"Yeah," Aomine agreed.

Kagami seemed to have an inner turmoil inside of him, but in the end he said, "Look. It's not easy for me, but-... I mean, you love Kise. And, apparently, Kise loves you too."

Aomine shrugged his shoulders, not sure where he was going with this.

"So," Kagami continued, and it seemed like it was hard for him to get out the words. "If you want to be with him, then alright. I won't mind."

"Of course you'd mind," Aomine said incredulously. "You love him."

Kagami shook his head. "It doesn't matter. He doesn't love me. And I have no claim on him."

"It's still not right," Aomine insisted.

"Since when do you care what's right and what's wrong?" Kagami said with a roll of his eyes. "Don't turn into a righteous man, Aomine, it doesn't suit you."

"C'mon, you moron. You know it's not right."

"Look, Aomine, I'll get over it," Kagami said, "I already pretty much came to the realization this past two months that Kise and I are not gonna happen. He doesn't want me, and it sucks, but it's life, y'know? I'll find someone else. I'm only seventeen, I still have time left to find someone. But if you two want each other, then I'm not gonna stand in your way."

Aomine stared at Kagami. "You serious?"

"Unfortunately, yeah," Kagami laughed, and it didn't even sound forced. "It might take me a while to be completely okay with it, but I'm on my way, y'know? Just- don't snog in front of me, alright? 'cause that might be a bit too much for me to handle."

Aomine almost smiled at that, but then he realized that it's probably not going to happen anyway. Kise probably didn't want anything to do with him. 

Honestly, he didn't blame him.

It was almost as if Kagami heard what Aomine was thinking in his head, which was creepy as fuck, because he said, "Don't worry about Kise hating you. If he really hated you, he wouldn't have come up to me after your fight and tried to explain to me how you did nothing wrong. Just talk to him."

And Aomine was almost overcome with emotion by then, so he said in the lightest tone possible, "You big oaf. Such a romantic, you are."

"Takes one to know one," Kagami replied with a smirk, and Aomine rolled his eyes.

"Fuck off," he said with a laugh. Then, "Thanks, Baka."

"You're welcome, Aho."

 

**~oOo~**

 

Their broken group finally mended after Aomine and Kagami's fight and make-up. 

Well, most of it, anyway.

Kise still wasn't a part of their group, and whenever they sat together anywhere, it felt like a gaping hole that just wouldn't mend itself until Kise joined them. And Aomine wanted him to join them, but it was literallyall up to him. He had to be the one to talk to Kise and he knew it. He had to be the one to tell Kise that he's sorry and that he misses him and if he could please, finally sit with them at breakfast and lunch and dinner because it just wasn't the same without him and all that shit.

But he was such a pussy and he just kept pushing it off.

Unsurprisingly, Momoi kept pushing him to go and talk to Kise. Surprisingly, so was Kagami.

"Come on, idiot," he said one day, and actually pointed at Kise, who was sitting at the Slytherin table with two students Aomine never saw before in his life. They were both also visibly drooling on him, to Aomine's annoyance. And Kise was entertaining them like he enjoyed it, the vain prick. "Go talk to him. It's about time you finally man up and do something."

"But I'm eating," Aomine said, and it was so weak that even he was slightly embarrassed by his excuse.

"Oh please," Momoi said with a huff, then her voice turned excited. "Look, he's walking out of the Great Hall all alone! That's your chance, Aomine, come on!" She pushed him forcefullyout of his seat, making him trip on his cloak, to Kagami's immense pleasure. "And  _don't fuck it up_!"

Easier said than done, Aomine thought to himself bitterly as he made his way (slowly) out of the Great Hall. And of course, because he was just so lucky, Kise was hanging around the entrance to the hall, talking to some girl in their year like he had no care in the world.

It really was time to man up. "Oi, Kise," he said, forcing his voice to sound neutral and calm.

Kise turned to him with a blank face and raised an eyebrow. "Aomine," he greeted. No -cchi. "Did you want something?"

"I need to talk to you," Aomine said, and the words sounded a bit rushed. He felt both elated just standing so close to Kise and talking to him after so long with no contact and terrified. 

Kise kept the blank expression on his face. "I'm talking to Hayashi," he said, gesturing at the girl in front of him, who looked between him and Aomine awkwardly.

Aomine furrowed his brows slightly at that, feeling challenged by Kise, like he thought that would make Aomine walk away. "Then I'll wait," he said.

The girl, Hayashi, looked at Kise with slight confusion. "It's not that important, Kise, we can talk about it some other time -"

"Nonsense," Kise dismissed pleasantly, "Continue on, what exactly did your pet turtle found in your garden?"

And thus, for the next ten minutes, Aomine had to endure one of the most boring stories ever told, about a turtle finding a shell in the garden that may or may not had once belonged to the necklace Hayashi wore as a child.

It really was a sign for his determination, how he didn't walk off after the first two seconds.

Kise, apparently, was especially surprised by that fact. "Didn't think you'd stick around," he said after the girl said her goodbye and walked off in the direction of the Hufflepuff common room.

"I need to talk to you," Aomine repeated, and the fact that he sounded so patient was a miracle.

Kise raised an eyebrow. "Then talk."

A group of students walked past them on their way out of the hall, staring at them as they did so, and Aomine shook his head. "Not here," he said. "Somewhere more private."

Kise looked at him for a moment, then said, "Alright then."

Aomine lead them to a secluded hall in the castle, one he only knew existed because it was such a great place for a makeout session between classes. He tried not to think about it with Kise right in front of him, in the same hall that he got it on in countless of times before.

"You and Kagami made up?" Kise asked conversationally, even though he already knew the answer. The whole castle knew it already, a bunch of gossips.

"Yeah," Aomine said, "When we were in the infirmary."

"I'm very happy for you," Kise said, sounding fake.

"Look, Kise, I'm sorry," Aomine said quickly, not wanting to prolong it any longer. "About everything. What I said to you, I didn't mean it."

"You did mean it," Kise said. "The last part, you meant it."

"I'm not sorry about meeting you," Aomine said, knowing this was what Kise meant. "At the time, maybe in some way, because it was just easier to think that if I hadn't met you none of it would've happened. Which is true, but... I'm happy I met you. I mean-" Aomine stopped, feelings completely out of his depth. He hated talking about feelings.

Kise sighed, his blank expression crumbling slightly. "I'm not sure what you want from me," he said honestly. 

"I just want to apologize," Aomine said, and then added in a more hopeful tone, "And ask if maybe you'd like to. I don't know. Continue what we were doing that day. On the field."

"What, continue with that kiss?" Kise said, saying what Aomine was trying to say in such an easy way that Aomine felt slightly jealous. "Even though I ruined your life, you still want to kiss me?"

It was so bitter that Aomine flinched. "Kise, I said I'm sorry," Aomine said, and hated that his tone was pleading.

Kise stayed quiet for a few moments. Then, "I forgive you."

Aomine blinked in surprise. "You do?"

Kise shrugged. "Yeah. It's not like I didn't know the reason you said all that stuff. You were just trying to be a good friend to Kagamicchi. I can't really be mad at you for that, no matter how hard I try."

"Fuck," Aomine said, as articulate as ever. "I didn't think you'd forgive me."

"Guess I'm a bit of a fool," Kise shrugged, not sounding overly bothered by that fact.

"And about the second part?" Aomine said, smiling now. Finally, he was going to get Kise, without any regret or shame or guilt.

Finally, things would turn out alright, for once in his life.

And Kise smiled. Leaned closer to him.

Said, "No."

Aomine froze. Felt his whole insides freeze. Asked, "No?" like a moron, because  _fuck_. 

"No," Kise repeated and leaned away from him with a smirk. "I think it's only fair, don't you think so? I mean, I've spent an entire year chasing after you. Now you're going to spend your next one chasing after me."

And with that he left him behind in that dark hall, his hips swinging from side to side, and it took a few long moments for Aomine to shake himself out of his shock and curse at the retreating back of the blond.

_Fucking slytherins._

 

 


End file.
